Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of systematic, oculomotor rehabilitation on basic versional ocular motility, as well as reading eye movements, in subjects with acquired brain injury, using objective eye movement recording and subjective rating of reading ability. DESIGN: Case series. SETTING: Clinical research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Two men with acquired brain injury: one with traumatic brain injury and one with stroke. INTERVENTIONS: Versional oculomotor training was performed for 1 hour, twice weekly for 8 weeks. There were 2 feedback modes of training: normal internal oculomotor visual feedback alone (4wk), or that feedback in conjunction with external oculomotor auditory feedback (4wk). Testing was conducted before and after training. Main outcome measures Objective outcome measures included both basic eye movement parameters (fixational accuracy, saccadic gain and latency, pursuit gain, mean saccade frequency ratio for simulated reading), and reading eye movement parameters (words per minute, grade level equivalent, fixations per 100 words, regressions per 100 words, percentage of reading comprehension, duration of fixation in seconds). Subjective outcome measures included the subject's ability to read based on the responses to the reading rating-scale questionnaire. RESULTS: Both subjects improved objectively in terms of basic versional oculomotor accuracy and reading ability. These findings concurred with their subjective impressions. CONCLUSIONS: This case series provides objective documentation of the positive effects of oculomotor rehabilitation on basic ocular motility and reading ability in selected cases with acquired brain injury, thus suggesting the need for a larger clinical trial in this area.

Vision disturbances following traumatic brain injury (TBI) include anomalies of accommodation, version, vergence (nonstrabismic, as well as strabismic), photosensitivity, visual field integrity, and ocular health. Traumatic brain injury patients with complex diplopia patterns, noncomitant strabismic anomalies, and advanced ocular health anomalies are either monitored by or referred to neuro-ophthalmologists and ophthalmologists for evaluation and possible surgical or medical intervention, as needed. Anomalies of accommodation, vergence, version, photosensitivity, and field of vision are amenable to noninvasive, rehabilitative interventions, such as vision therapy, which is rendered by optometrists and is described in this article. Further, vision therapy may be performed in isolation or in conjunction with the application of the following: Fusional prism spectacles (for diplopia) Tinted spectacles (for photosensitivity) Yoked prism spectacles (for visual-spatial hemispheric inattention, with or without a manifest visual field defect), as appropriate Dependent on the severity of vision impairment post-TBI, other types of rehabilitation, such as vestibular, physical, cognitive, and occupational rehabilitation, are deferred pending the stabilization of vision function to an appropriate level. Rehabilitative optometric intervention is appropriate and beneficial for many TBI patients. Therefore, it should be offered as a possible evaluation and treatment option to investigate the patient's symptoms and determine the prognosis for treatment, as would be done with any other therapeutic modality.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to present new visual sensorimotor findings in a patient with complex regional pain syndrome type I, formerly known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy. DESIGN: Clinical measurements were compared for the following visual sensorimotor tasks before and after 10 minutes of near visual stimulation: accommodation, vergence, and reading eye movements. PATIENT: The patient was a 19-year-old female university student with complex regional pain syndrome type I. RESULTS: All visual sensorimotor findings worsened dramatically after performance of the brief near visual task. In addition, the patient experienced severe dizziness, nausea, dull eye ache, and general fatigue, which persisted for 30 to 45 minutes following each test period. CONCLUSIONS: The patient manifested signs and symptoms of complex regional pain syndrome type I per the prior neurologic diagnosis, as well as the newly diagnosed accommodative infacility, accommodative insufficiency, convergence insufficiency, and deficits of saccades and pursuits, which were severely debilitating. The findings neither support nor refute the conventional notion of abnormal sympathetic mediation as a mechanism of fatigue and pain. However, the diagnoses of accommodative infacility and insufficiency suggest abnormal parasympathetic activation. Further investigation is needed to characterize the array of visual dysfunctions in a large sample of such patients, which may help elucidate the precise underlying neurologic causes of the sensorimotor deficits in these patients.