While optical therapy employs optical devices to assist the damaged visual field, eye movement therapy uses compensation and neurological adaptation to help the patient adjust to the change in their visual field. Visual restitution therapy looks to improve the patient’s visual field directly, but the way in which this occurs seems to work through a combination of compensation and other visual training techniques. The grouping of these different methods together would be ideal to help a patient regain as much of their vision as possible, as individual strategies may only improve particular functions of vision (ex: the improvement of reading ability may not translate to improve visibility for driving).

HHA: Treatment

A very common post-stroke diagnosis is homonymous hemianopia, a visual disorder characterized by partial or complete blindness in the same visual field of both eyes. While some may spontaneously recover their vision (within the first few months) others endure permanent damage to their visual fields. Those who endure the permanent damage have a few different treatment options: optical therapy, eye movement therapy, and visual restitution therapy. Damage to the visual fields in this manner results in blindness on the same side of both eyes — a person with left-sided homonymous hemianopia might compensate for their blindness by turning their head to the left to see things with their right-sided visual fields.

Rutgers University

Stroke can be clinically recognized through a sudden or rapid onset of symptoms which reflect global or focal deficit of neurological function, lasting around 24 hours or yielding death. Due to infarction or hemorrhage of the central nervous system, it is classified as both a neurological disorder and vascular injury. There are associations between stroke development and hypertension, diabetes, history of smoking, and more. Despite the wide range of severity in symptoms, strokes are generally characterized by difficulties with motor function, visual deficits, speech and language deficits, pain, and other difficulties with daily life activities which yield a strong dependence on a caregiver or nursing facility. Combinations of pharmacological- and rehabilitation-based treatments are the most common strategies to help a patient improve their overall function. 

Stroke

Homonymous Hemianopia

There are a variety of rehabilitation approaches and goals with regards to stroke, depending on the severity of the patient’s symptoms. There are three main approaches to any form of rehabilitation for stroke patients: restoration, compensation, and modification. The restoration approach looks to retrain parts of the central nervous system in order to restore functions of damaged brain tissue; the compensation approach hopes to adapt the individual’s behavior to their loss of functionality; the modification approach alters the patient’s environment to promote daily function. Altogether, these three approaches can improve brain and daily life function after this major medical event.

Rehabilitation Approaches

Outpatient, home-health, and inpatient rehabilitation therapies are all common options for the patient, again depending on their severity. In general, a team-based therapy approach should be employed for the patient to get the most well-rounded care and improvement — this would include a mix of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Alongside therapeutic opportunities, pharmacologic treatments are common for stroke patients as well. In general, the impact of stroke can lead to a wide range of possible diagnoses and additional treatments. For example, someone who acquires visual deficits with stroke may require the addition of optical therapy; someone who begins feeling depressed may require mental health treatment or SSRIs, which can also improve motor function.

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