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Strokes and Vision Therapy
75% of head trauma survivors need rehabilitation.
90% of them need visual care.
In a CVA/Stroke, ruptured blood vessels within the brain bleed into the brain/skull cavity. If the bleed affects the Occipital Lobe of the brain, vision will be affected. Both Central (straight-ahead 20/20 vision) and Peripheral Vision are vulnerable, depending upon the location of the CVA/Stroke.
Most nerve fibers from the right eye cross to the left side of the brain and vice versa. A CVA/Stroke on the left side of the brain may result in a loss of the right field of vision in both eyes – if the CVA/Stroke is on the right side of the brain, the left field of vision may be affected. If the brain cells receiving high resolution data from the macula/fovea cells of the retina are intact, 20/20 or close acuity will still be present. If these Brain Cells are affected by the CVA/Stroke, Visual Acuity may be markedly reduced.
A CVA/Stroke in higher brain centers may affect Visual Information Processing and Visual Perception. Visual interpretation and judgments of visual stimuli take place in higher level cognitive (thinking) brain regions – a CVA/Stroke may disrupt the inter-connections of brain neurological circuitry. Thought processes and logical reasoning may change from pre-CVA/Stroke abilities.
Treatment at Hope Clinic is prescribed with the goal of restoring normal binocular (two eyes) function to the highest attainable level
Lenses, special prisms and Optometric Vision Therapy/Orthoptics are often combined to restore Visual Motor Guidance abilities, Ocular Motility (eye tracking), Accommodation (eye focusing), Vergence (eye alignment) and Visual Information Processing/Visual Perception skills. Special Prisms, called Yoked Prisms, may be prescribed to correct Visual Midline Shift (a shifting of the awareness of the midline of the body) and other mal-adaptations of head and body posture. Yoked Prism and other highly specialized lens and prism systems may allow better abilities in daily living activities with the loss of peripheral visual field.
Our vision services are coordinated with other professionals involved in CVA/Stroke rehabilitation.
For further study and information, please visit the Websites below:
A Stroke Of Bad Luck For Irene
Strokes are like hurricanes in the brain. There is no such thing as a good one, only the extent of damage it causes. Irene came through our region recently, both in the from of Hurricane Irene, and in the form of a 60 year-old patient by the same first name.
Until the end of July, our patient Irene was sharp as a tack, running her own business that centered on headhunting computer specialists. She’d been feeling kind of run down this past year or two, working long and intense hours, but she continued to push herself. She began to note that her vision wasn’t quite right, and her primary care optometric physician (PCOD) tweaked her prescription a couple of times. In retrospect her perception was off a bit, but nothing alarming at the time. Reading, which was one of her joys, had become more tedious.
Read "A Stroke of Bad Luck for Irene" in it's entirety.
From the Vision Help Blog
