If you have homonymous hemianopia, you experience loss in half of the visual field of your eye. Right homonymous hemianopia is characterized by vision loss toward your right temple in your right eye. This condition may be caused by traumatic brain injury such from a car wreck, a stroke or brain surgery. Exercises help restore vision in some cases.
Significance
Homonymous hemianopia affects your ability to read, drive and perform work duties. For example, you may not notice objects or obstacles on your affected side, raising your risk for collisions, whether walking or driving. Psychophysical training techniques can help you improve your ability to make eye movements toward the affected side, strengthening vision in this area. Diagnosis for this condition is often difficult, however. An August 2006 “Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry” study reports a median diagnosis delay of five months in people who’ve suffered traumatic brain injury such as from a car crash. This delay can have a major effect on the success of your rehabilitation.
Reading
There are steps you can take to improve your reading. Use a straight edge to direct your eyes to a line of text and work consciously to increase your small eye movements as your eye moves along this line of text. Meanwhile, you may have luck reading if you hold the text at a 90-degree angle and reading vertically. With right homonymous hemianopia, you read down to keep the next line of text in your intact left visual field. In contrast, a person with left homonymous hemianopia reads up, according to the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society.
Environment
You also may improve your ability to move through your environment with different exercises aimed at directing your eyes toward the visual field in which you have a problem. You usually make a series of small eye movements into your blind field when you are looking for something there. However, it’s more effective to consciously make a large eye movement into your problem field, according to the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society. There are many strategies for improving vision in the problem area. One strategy called the “overshoot strategy” has you make a large eye movement toward your problem side and overshoot the object you are trying to see, then “catch” the target with your eye. Another strategy is to direct your eyes toward your blind side and wait for the target object to appear. Work with a health care provider to identify the best strategy for you.
Considerations
According to the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society, computer-assisted programs designed to improve visual field recovery are controversial. Until more research is done on such programs, the society advises approaching them with caution. If exercises do not improve your vision there are other options including custom eyeglasses that are fitted with mirrors or prisms designed to compensate for the blind area of vision. Also, your homonymous hemianopia may improve spontaneously. In rare cases, surgery has successfully corrected this problem. However, such surgeries are not generally recommended because they are risky and there is a high risk of death, according to the “British Journal of Ophthalmology.”
References
- North Dakota State University: Visual Disorders -- Homonyomous Hemianopia
- Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry: Traumatic Homonymous Hemianopia; B B Bruce, et al.; August 2006
- British Journal of Ophthalmology: Can Visual Function be Restored in Patients with Homonymous Hemianopia?; A.L.M. Pambkain and C. Kennard; 1997
- North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society: Homonymous Hemianopia
