Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation

Overview

Traumatic brain injury or a cerebrovascular accident is sudden and devastating. Research performed by Dr. Padula and others has shown that often there are visual problems which occur after a head injury or cerebrovascular accident that can interfere with balance, movement, coordination, attention, concentration, and reading ability. Frequently, persons who have had a traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident or other neurological problems will experience double or blurred vision, blind spots, dizziness (vertigo), movement of the floor and/or other stationary objects, and in some cases even hallucinations resulting in Post Trauma Vision Syndrome. If untreated, this syndrome can, in many cases, greatly interfere with rehabilitation of cognitive and neuro-motor function.

A Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation evaluation provides information for analysis of the profound relationship of the visual process to balance, posture, movement, position sense, cognitive processing and memory. The evaluation includes a careful analysis of how a person uses a portion of the visual system, the spatial visual process, to support balance and posture. After a traumatic brain injury or cerebrovascular accident, instability that occurs in this peripheral vision system causes interference with fixation, tracking, focusing, and eye teaming (use of the two eyes together).

Physical Disabilities

Whether a person has a physical disability caused by a traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident, cerebral palsy, autism, multiple sclerosis or other congenital or acquired neuro-motor problems, visual imbalances and distortions can actually reinforce the particular physical disability. Frequently, a neuro-motor disability will cause a shift in the perceived concept of one’s awareness of their visual midline. The visual midline is produced by the matching of visual information with sensory-motor information to give the person an awareness of the center of their body.

A shift of the visual midline is caused by a dysfunction of the spatial visual process. This results in Visual Midline Shift Syndrome. This midline shift reinforces postural imbalances causing the person to lean to one side, or forward/backward because a person’s understanding of their visual midline is displaced. Therapeutic use of lenses and prisms can help to stabilize the disrupted spatial visual process. Through use of prisms, the concept of visual midline can be reoriented resulting in improved posture and balance.

The use of these prisms has also been found to affect the physical state of muscle spasticity but are not meant to take the place of physical or occupational therapies. Instead, these devices are often recommended for use in conjunction with these therapies. Through a multi-disciplinary approach of using therapeutic lenses and/or yoked prisms it has been found that the rehabilitation of the physically disabled child or adult can be more complete and efficient, enabling the person to achieve a greater potential in the least amount of time.