A COMPUTER AND VIDEO DISPLAY BASED SYSTEM FOR TRAINING ECCENTRIC VIEWING IN MACULAR DEGENERATION WITH AN ABSOLUTE CENTRAL SCOTOMA

A new approach designed to establish the most suitable area for eccent ric viewing and to teach and train patients with severe age-related ma cular degeneration (AMD) to use the eccentric viewing technique is des cribed. Using a computer and video display based system, as well as so ftware written specifically for this purpose, we investigated and trai ned ten consecutive patients with AMD. The patients were 80.1 +/- 5.6 years old, on average. All of them had an absolute central scotoma. Me an visual acuity was 0.035 +/- 0.016. After 30 min of testing, instruc tion and reading on the screen, followed by 2.6 +/- 0.69 one-hour trai ning sessions, on average, with the low vision therapist, reading news paper and book texts with the aid of hyperoculars or aplanatic systems and a very short reading distance, the patients achieved a reading sp eed of 58.9 +/- 19.7 words/min, significantly (p<0.001) higher than th e initial speed when reading on the screen, 11.5 +/- 4.5 words/min.