Hemianopics Sometimes Don’t Recognize Traffic Patterns

“A diagnosis of hemianopia, or blindness in one-half of the visual field in both eyes as the result of strokes, tumors or trauma often means the end of driving,” summarizes Science Daily. “Researchers set out to determine the extent to which people with hemianopia can compensate for the lost vision when driving, with a long term goal of developing and evaluating devices and training that will assist them to drive more safely. The findings suggest that the scanning patterns employed by some drivers with hemianopia may be insufficient for safe driving.” Read more.

Peripheral Prism Helps with Hemianopia

"Peripheral prism glasses, invented by Eli Peli, M.Sc., O.D., Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Senior Scientist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, use high power prism segments embedded in a regular spectacle lens to expand the upper and lower visual fields of patients with hemianopia by as much as 30 degrees," reports Midwest Lens. "The prisms optically shift objects from the blind side of the visual field to the seeing side, thereby alerting people with hemianopia to objects and obstacles not otherwise visible to them. Although the results of early clinical evaluations of the peripheral prism glasses suggested that they were helpful for obstacle avoidance when walking, the device had never previously been compared to either another rehabilitation intervention for hemianopia or to a sham device." Read more.