Albert Einstein Medical Center Offers New Hope for Patients Partially Blinded by Stroke or Traumatic Brain Injury

Einstein First in Tri-State Area to Offer Innovative, Non-Surgical Therapy to Reduce Vision Loss

Philadelphia, PA, June 15, 2005 - Patients who have been partially blinded by stroke or traumatic brain injury now have a treatment that may reduce their vision loss. Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia is the first hospital in the region to offer new, FDA-approved, non-surgical, computer-based NovaVision VRTTM Vision Restoration Therapy. VRT has improved vision in two thirds of the patients who have used it.

 “Before this therapy, we had no way to treat this kind of visual impairment,” says Mark L. Moster, MD, Chairman, Division of Neuro-Ophthalmology, Einstein Medical Center and Professor, Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine. “NovaVision VRT provides promise and hope for patients with visual deficits due to stroke or traumatic brain injury.”

 Vision Restoration Therapy involves in-home use of computerized equipment to stimulate areas of residual vision. Repeated stimulation over a period of six months can help improve vision.

 Dr. Moster’s first patient to begin VRT reports improvements in vision after several months of therapy. Always active and healthy, 55-year-old Bob Gerace of Springfield, PA, coached youth baseball and basketball until a stroke impaired his vision in 2003. He bumped into things and couldn’t drive or even walk around the neighborhood unaided.

 In February, Gerace started using VRT equipment at home to stimulate the peripheral vision around his blind spot, focusing on the border zone between healthy and damaged neurons. While staring at a green dot “fixation point” in the center of the computer screen, Gerace clicks the mouse when his residual vision sees one of the white dots that pop up. He repeats this therapy for about 30 minutes twice a day. Gerace says he can now spot his children on the baseball field and basketball court and watch his favorite sports on TV.

 Gerace is one of approximately 1.5 million Americans who suffer from major visual field deficits resulting from stroke or traumatic brain injury. That number grows by more than 90,000 new patients each year. Like Gerace, 28 percent of stroke victims are under 65 years old. Traumatic brain injury ranks as the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults.

 To date, more than 700 patients have been treated with VRT. More than 65 percent of patients who underwent VRT for initial six-month treatment periods showed measurable improvements in their vision. Based on more than 15 years of clinical research, NovaVision VRT Vision Restoration Therapy is developed and distributed by NovaVision, Inc.

 Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, a member of the Jefferson Health System, provides healthcare services through Albert Einstein Medical Center, Germantown Community Health Services, Willow Terrace (a nursing home), Einstein at Elkins Park, MossRehab, Willowcrest (a center for subacute care), Belmont Behavioral Health and a number of outpatient and satellite locations.  Einstein also operates a primary care network, Einstein Neighborhood Healthcare.  For more information, visit www.einstein.edu or call 1-800-EINSTEIN.

 

CONTACT: Priscilla Koutsouradis
  Communications Manager
  Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
  215-456-3922 or koutsoup@einstein.edu

Publish date: June 15, 2005