Representatives from the Istituto Cavazza participated in
the 10th International Conference on Low Vision which took place in Kuala
Lumpur in Malaysia from February 20th to the 24th 2011. On this occasion,
the Institute presented in a world premier event the first results
obtained through visual rehabilitation with Vision Pad ht an innovative
software for iPad which allows vision training to be done at home with the
patient.
Italy, with close to 24.5% of its population aged 60 and
over is one of the countries on earth where people live the longest.
This has a direct incidence on the percentage of visual disability
estimated in people, that is 0.4-0.8% of the population aged between 65
and 74 years and 3% of those aged over 75.
This data is important to
understand the impact of low vision on families and on the sector's health
infrastructures.
During the 10th International Conference, it was
repeated how low vision and blindness would absorb great resources,
representing considerable direct or indirect costs. A research
commissioned by AMD Alliance International estimates in billions of
dollars the cost of visual impairment in the world.
The home
rehabilitative treatment of low vision patients is potentially an
intervention strategy that is economically sustainable and under many
aspects favourable for the integration of vision training which takes
place in specialized facilities and which can lead to serious results in
economic and psychological terms.
At the present time, vision training
at home does not seem for various reasons to be able to substitute
outpatient rehabilitative treatment, but it can be considered as a valid
support system that can be integrated in traditional rehabilitation
programs and guarantee an effective and continuous support
component.
Of course this approach does not respond well to all pathologies and all situations. The first study was done with a group of people who had age-related macular degeneration, since numerous studies have shown the use of vision training to stimulate and stabilize a retinal area used for fixation and reading, in order to gain back independence in daily activities. The protocol followed during the course of this first experimentation consisted in daily sessions of 10 minutes each for 30 consecutive days. The first results showed an increase in the stability of fixation and an
increment of the speed of reading in patients with age-related macular degeneration. Given these first encouraging results, it will be necessary to do more studies to link the definition and normalization protocols of the use of Vision Pad ht with daily rehabilitation therapy.
