Hemispatial sunglasses: effect on unilateral spatial neglect.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether using glasses shaded on the non-neglected side would lead to less unilateral neglect during pencil-and-paper activities.


METHODS
Descriptive study of ten patients. One remarkable case is described in detail.


METHODS
Rehabilitation medicine department in an urban general hospital.


METHODS
Ten hemiplegic patients showing left unilateral neglect during pencil-and-paper activities.


METHODS
Use of glasses in which the right half of each lens was shaded by a darker lens like those used in sunglasses.


METHODS
For unilateral neglect: (1) deviation from marking the middle of a 20-cm horizontal line; (2) number of lines left unmarked on the left 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 patients, improvement was mixed for each of the three outcome measures. One patient, however, demonstrated dramatic and lasting improvement in functional activities by wearing the hemispatial sunglasses.


CONCLUSIONS
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 effect and its scope of applicability.
Arai
T
T
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hiroshima General Hospital of the West Japan Railway Company, Japan.
Ohi
H
H
Sasaki
H
H
Nobuto
H
H
Tanaka
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004867:Equipment Design; D005139:Eyeglasses; D005260:Female; D006423:Hemianopsia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009989:Orthotic Devices