Posters

The Scharioth macula lens in low vision patients-new outcomes of the project

Poster Details

First Author: N.Jiraskova CZECH REPUBLIC

Co Author(s): J. Nekolova   J. Kremlacek   M. Stredova              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To present the outcomes of the ongoing project which is aimed to low-vision patients with stable maculopathy. The Scharioth Macula Lens (SML) is implanted in better seeing eyes of the patients. After surgery, participants undergo an intensive visual rehabilitation supported by modulation of cortical plasticity with a transcranial electrical stimulation (tES). The SML magnifies objects and it improves reading ability. Cortical associative plasticity plays an important role in visual rehabilitation after SML implantation. The brain activity is modulated with intensive reading training and by the tES. We assess whether tES can facilitate and/or accelerate the vision rehabilitation.

Setting:

Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic and Department of pathological physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.

Methods:

A total of 20 patients will be included in the study within 3 years. The third day after surgery a visual rehabilitation and transcranial electrical stimulation starts and continues for up to 20 consecutive days, in double-blinded design.  Transcranial electrical stimulation is applied for several tens of minutes. The examination is performed preoperatively and then at the day 3, month 1, 2 and 6 after surgery. Visual acuity, central retinal thickness, contrast sensitivity, intraocular pressure, visual plasticity in the form of evoked potentials (EP) was examined. Patients‘ subjective satisfaction and the quality of life is assessed using two questionnaires.

Results:

Ten patients finished 6 months follow-up period. In eight of them we found improvement in reading ability without additional aids or glasses (p = 0.006). The mean distance vision was not significantly changed, which was also confirmed by the comparison of pre- and post-operative electrophysiological examinations. Modulation of cortical plasticity by tES did not show a statistically significant effect on reading ability. The questionnaire survey showed that in the vast majority of patients (n=9) the positive effects of intervention outweighed the demands of treatment and stimulation burden.

Conclusions:

Visual rehabilitation helps the patient to learn how to look with a newly implanted lens. Intraocular lens implantation and visual rehabilitation have a positive impact on the capabilities of AMD patients. The results so far have not shown the effect of tES. Financial Disclosure: The project is supported by the grant AZVMZ CR NV18-06-00484

Financial Disclosure:

None