Vision Restoration in Patients with Glaucoma and Optic Nerve Damage

Thursday, July 14 2016 | 00 h 00 min | Vision Science

Researchers in Magdeburg, Germany, found that ten days of treatment with alternating current stimulation of the brain resulted in significant vision improvement in patients with vision loss that was considered to be irreversible.

The prospective study, published June 29th in PLoS ONE, demonstrated that “ACS treatment is a safe and effective means to partially restore vision after optic nerve damage probably by modulating brain plasticity, re-synchronizing brain networks, which were desynchronized by vision loss,” according to lead investigator Bernard Sabel, PhD.

82 patients were enrolled in the double-blind trial, 33 with visual loss caused by glaucoma and 32 with anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. 45 of these patients underwent ten total sessions 50 minutes per day of reptetitive transorbital alternativng current stimulation (rtACS), while 37 patients were part of the control group receiving sham treatments.

A 24% improvement in visual field of the group receiving the treatment was found, compared to a 2.5% visual field improvement in the control group. This improvement was stable two months later, with the treatment group still showing a 24% improvement.

Click HERE to view a video of the procedure.

View the PLOS ONE paper HERE.