Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation is a specialized, individualized treatment regimen for those who have visual deficits as a direct result of physical disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and other neurological insults. Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Optometrists have special training and clinical experience in this area and understand how specific visual dysfunctions relate to a patient's symptoms and performance.
Patients who can benefit from a neuro-optometric assessment include those with a history of: traumatic brain injury, concussion, stroke, chronic inflammation within the brain, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, and other conditions that can progress to affect the nervous system (such as Lyme Disease).
A Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Optometrist evaluates many functions of the visual system, including:
- How the eyes work together
- Whether the eyes are working hard to focus and aim together
- Eye scanning and tracking ability
- How the person processes their environment and moves through it
- The integration between vision and other systems such as balance, auditory, and the body’s sense of position in space
- Complex visual perceptual ability (how a person organizes and interprets the information that is seen and gives it meaning and visual memory (the ability to remember something seen in the past)
- Information provided during a standard eye exam such as visual acuity, refraction, eye health evaluation, and peripheral vision testing are required as well.
Following the examination, a Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Optometrist will work with a patient to develop a treatment plan that is specially designed to improve or eliminate a patient’s specific symptoms and difficulties. Treatment may include specialized glasses to help with visual processing, and/or a Vision Rehabilitation program that incorporates both in-office and out-of-office procedures for the remediation and management of your visual problems with the goal to improve activities of daily visual living and performance.
In brain injury, often a single approach to rehabilitation is not sufficient to address all of a patient’s needs. An interdisciplinary, integrated team approach can play a vital role in the rehabilitation of patients with various types of neurological deficits. Your Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Optometrist may work with other rehabilitation team members such as neurologists, rehab physicians, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, neuropsychologists, and audiologists.