Special Prismatic Lenses Could Help Treat Headaches, Dizziness in Brain Injury Patients
Patients with a Traumatic Brain Injury often suffer symptoms of vertical heterophoria or visual misalignment. This kind of misalignment can increase stress and pressure on the eye muscles, which have to adjust to correct the alignment. The stress on the eye muscles contributes to symptoms like headaches, dizziness, anxiety, neck pain and difficulty in reading. These are known as postconcussive symptoms, and in approximately 10 % to 25% of patients who suffer from a brain injury, can be seen even years after the injury has occurred.
Now, a team of researchers from Michigan has found that using special eye lenses with prisms can help alleviate these symptoms. Using the special lenses with prisms can help correct the misalignment, thereby reducing stress on the eye muscles. The researchers focused on 43 patients with brain injury, who continued to experience symptoms of vertical heterophoria even three years after suffering the injury. The use of these lenses was found to dramatically reduce postconcussive symptoms in these patients, by as much 71%. The prismatic lenses were added to the patients’ basic perceptions, and improvement was seen over an average of 3.5 months.
Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury often focuses on eliminating the symptoms that arise from the injury or its complications. There has been very little progress made in the treatment of brain injury over the past few decades. Most treatments for brain injury are restricted to the first few hours after the injury has been sustained. There is nothing doctors can do to reverse the initial brain damage, but if the patient can be rushed to a trauma care center in time, further damage to the brain can be prevented.
After that, it can be a long process of physical, language, and rehabilitation therapy for brain injured patients relearn how to do things.
Robert Fleming is an Atlanta injury lawyer representing victims of auto accidents with brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, whiplash, fractures and other injuries, helping them recover compensation for these.
