Current possibilities of visual rehabilitation

Abstract

Diseases of the eyes and visual pathways can lead to different visual field defects, which limit the patients’ abilities in everyday life in different ways. Central visual field defects cause mainly reading disorders and peripheral defects cause disorders of orientation and mobility. Rehabilitation measures have to be adapted specifically to the deficit and the individual needs of the patient. In central scotoma, reading ability can mostly be restored by magnifying visual aids. In reading disorders caused by insufficient size of the reading visual field, text magnification is contraindicated. In this case, contrast-enhancing or non-visual aids are applied. Modern electronic media are successfully used particularly by young people with visual impairments. Computer-based training programs are of increasing importance, especially saccadic training for orientation disorders due to concentric and homonymous visual field impairments.