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Researchers at the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society Meeting Report Positive VRT™ Results

03/02/2006

03/02/2006 » New Research on The Efficacy of NovaVision ™ VRT ™ Presented at 32nd Annual North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society Meeting

Study reports visual field enlargements from NovaVision ™ VRT ™ stable for at least 3.5 years; researchers find hallmarks of visual plasticity during VRT ™

TUSCON , ARIZ. — Researchers at the 32nd annual meeting of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (NANOS) today reported positive results from studies of stroke and brain trauma patients seeking reduction in their vision impairment with NovaVision™ VRT™ Vision Restoration Therapy™ (VRT™). VRT™ is the first and only FDA-cleared therapy to improve visual field deficits caused by stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI), conditions once considered untreatable.

Data was presented at NANOS this week by Bernhard Sabel, Ph.D., Chair of Medical Psychology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg in Magdeburg, Germany. A study, titled "Cognitive mechanisms and hallucinations as hallmarks of visual system plasticity in hemianopic patients during vision restoration therapy," reviewed the broader perspectives of brain plasticity.

NovaVision™ VRT™ was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2003. The average therapy regimen takes six months, and involves brief daily therapy sessions with a clinically configured field of visual stimuli on a VRT™ medical device patients use at home. VRT™ is based on the principle of neuroplasticity — the ability of partially damaged neurons in the brain to compensate for injury and adjust their activity in response to stimulation from the environment. After stroke or TBI, a zone of residual vision typically exists between regions within the brain's vision-processing areas. Within this zone, there are areas that can be improved using precise patterns of stimulation.

The need for a rehabilitative therapy like VRT™ is substantial. An estimated 4.8 million people have survived a stroke (American Heart Association, 2004 Update), and at least 5.3 million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from TBI (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 2004). Approximately 1.5 million stroke and TBI patients in the United States suffer from major visual field deficits, and that number grows by more than 90,000 new patients each year. To date, more than 1,000 patients have been treated with VRT™.

"These studies provide further evidence to support clinical applications of neuroplasticity like VRT™. It was previously believed visual field loss in stroke and TBI patients could not be improved, but clinical data on the efficacy of VRT™ continue to prove the contrary," said NovaVision™ President and CEO Navroze Mehta. "Like speech, physical and occupational therapies, VRT™ has emerged as a new form of therapy that substantially improves the quality of life for these patients."