Visual Field Restoration Therapy: Point-Counterpoint

Disappointing results from Nova Vision's visual restoration therapy.

L esions posterior to the optic chiasm produce homonymous visual field loss—overlapping scotomas in the nasal field of one eye and the temporal field of the other eye. Patients retain normal acuity, but find their lives changed forever. A homonymous hemianopia, when complete, makes safe driving impossible and reading a chore. Although some patients experience partial, spontaneous improvement fo...

Brain activity associated with stimulation therapy of the visual borderzone in hemianopic stroke patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Visual restoration therapy is a home-based treatment program intended to expand visual fields of hemianopic patients through repetitive stimulation of the borderzone adjacent to the blind field. We hypothesized that the training itself would induce visual field location-specific changes in the brain's response to stimuli, a phenomenon demonstrated in animal experiments ...

Recovery of visual field defects: a large clinical observational study using vision restoration therapy.

PURPOSE In small experimental trials, vision restoration therapy (VRT), a home-based rehabilitation method, has shown to enlarge the visual field and improve reaction times in patients with lesion involving the CNS. We now evaluated the outcome of VRT in a large sample of clinical patients and studied factors contributing to subjective and objective measures of visual field alterations. METHO...

Efficacy of vision restoration therapy after optic neuritis (VISION study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND Optic neuritis is a frequent manifestation of multiple sclerosis. Visual deficits range from a minor impairment of visual functions through to complete loss of vision. Although many patients recover almost completely, roughly 35% of patients remain visually impaired for years, and therapeutic options for those patients hardly exist. Vision restoration therapy is a software-based visu...

Point-Counterpoint: the argument for a 2-year versus a 4-year family medicine residency.