HEMISPATIAL SUNGLASSES - EFFECT ON UNILATERAL SPATIAL NEGLECT

Objective: To investigate whether using glasses shaded on the non-negl ected side would lead to less unilateral neglect during pencil-and-pap er activities. Design: Descriptive study of ten patients. One remarkab le case is described in detail. Setting: Rehabilitation medicine depar tment in an urban general hospital. Patients: Ten hemiplegic patients showing left unilateral neglect during pencil-and-paper activities. In tervention: Use of glasses in which the right half of each lens was sh aded by a darker lens like those used in sunglasses. Main Outcome Meas ures: For unilateral neglect: (1) deviation from marking the middle of a 20-cm horizontal line; (2) number of lines left unmarked on the lef t hand portion of a page of 40 randomly oriented lines; (3) degree of failure to copy a representation of a cube. Results: Among the ten pat ients, improvement was mixed for each of the three outcome measures. O ne patient, however, demonstrated dramatic and lasting improvement in functional activities by wearing the hemispatial sunglasses. Conclusio n: Hemispatial sunglasses appear to have a potentially specific effect on visual neglect in certain patients with right hemispheric lesions. Further investigation is necessary to determine the nature of this ef fect and its scope of applicability. (C) 1997 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medic ine and Rehabilitation.