Evidence Based Research
There Is More to Vision Than Meets the Eye
PIV — Proven Results Treating Visual Difficulties
Did you know visual difficulty symptoms such as eye strain, headaches, difficulty with vision-posture and balance, loss of place when reading, can all be caused by a dysfunction of the visual process in the brain. Dr. Padula has conducted research to prove that his methods of testing and treating visual difficulties are evidenced-based. He is a leader in the field with proven results using prism and/or lenses.
What does ‘evidence-based’ research mean?
Evidence-based means that the PIV methods of testing and treating visual difficulties have been proven in research.
What are the PIV methods of testing and treating visual difficulties?
When a patient is evaluated at PIV there will be visual tests that measure the brain’s response prior to treatment and after treatment.
- The testing performed at PIV uses instruments to measure and collect data from the patient to demonstrate the time that it takes for a visual stimulus to travel from the eye to the brain (occipital cortex).
- This assessment of brain waves from the visual process is called visual evoked potential. It can give the doctor an idea of whether the nerve pathways are abnormal in any way.
- If an abnormality is indicated as a result of these tests, PIV will treat the visual difficulty with prisms and lenses.
What are prisms and lenses/yoked prisms?
A prism is a solid shape that is bound on all its sides by plane faces. A prism lens is able to deflect light, thereby improving the way light is focused. Yoked prisms can change the timing of light and enhance the way light focuses onto the retina in the back of the eye, for clearer, more comfortable vision. Through this change it can influence the communication between the visual, auditory sensory systems helping a patient accurately interpret what they see.
Results
A comparison of the before use of prism and/or lenses will be compared to how the brain waves change after the use of prism and/or lenses. This will demonstrate that the process of vision in the brain has become more efficient and effective.
Research Papers
The Consequence of Spatial Visual Processing Dysfunction Caused by Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
By William V. Padula, OD, SFNAP, FAAO, FNORA
ABSTRACT
Objective: A bi-modal visual processing model is supported by research to affect dysfunction following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI causes dysfunction of visual processing affecting binocularity, spatial orientation, posture and balance. Research demonstrates that prescription of prisms influence the plasticity between spatial visual processing and motor-sensory systems improving visual processing and reducing symptoms following a TBI.
Rationale: The rationale demonstrates that visual processing underlies the functional aspects of binocularity, balance and posture. The bi-modal visual process maintains plasticity for efficiency. Compromise causes Post Trauma Vision Syndrome (PTVS) and Visual Midline Shift Syndrome (VMSS). Rehabilitation through use of lenses, prisms and sectoral occlusion has inter-professional implications in rehabilitation affecting the plasticity of the bi-modal visual process, thereby improving binocularity, spatial orientation, posture and balance
Main outcomes: This review provides an opportunity to create a new perspective of the consequences of TBI on visual processing and the symptoms that are often caused by trauma. It also serves to provide a perspective of visual processing dysfunction that has potential for developing new approaches of rehabilitation.
Conclusions: Understanding vision as a bi-modal process facilitates a new perspective of visual processing and the potentials for rehabilitation following a concussion, brain injury or other neurological events.
