Vision Restoration Therapy: Health Story

Aired on Superstation WGN
Saturday, August 6 and November 26, 2005
Show 221

Bart Goldstein was in a terrible car accident and suffered blindness to the right peripheries of both eyes. "If the visual part of the brain is damaged, visual restoration therapy, or VRT, can stimulate alternative regions of the brain. This works for any type of injury that effects sight, such as trauma or stroke," says Dr. Randolph S. Marshall of Columbia University Medical Center.

One and a half million Americans suffer vision loss from stroke or injury. VRT is a high-tech computer therapy that is individually tailored to each patient.

"Twice a day for twenty minutes for a period of six months, a patient sits in front of a programmed screen that places stimuli in the visual field which in turn stimulates the visual cortex in the brain," says Dr. Marshall. "Brain cells can be retrained. The brain is capable of recovery, reorganization and plasticity," he adds.

Until now Bart's peripheral vision loss was untreatable. "This treatment has opened new doors for me," says Bart who has substantially enlarged his sight field.