When O.D.s can address the symptomatology of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) early on, it improves patients’ rehabilitation potential. But patients often don’t make the connection between their vision problems and mTBI. As March marks Brain Injury Awareness Month (head to Social Media Toolkit for more information), two neuro-O.D.s weigh in on this disconnect.

“You have to ask the patient almost five different times, in different ways, before they finally say, ‘Oh yeah, I walked into the sliding glass door last week,’” says DeAnn Fitzgerald, O.D., President of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA).

“Vision problems can actually keep a patient from recovering,” explains Susan Daniel, O.D., a NORA advisory board member. “Treating mTBI is like a puzzle — you use all of the tools you’re given as an O.D. to put it together.”

 

 

Also in Leading Off

• Practices Can Require Employee COVID-19 Vaccinations, With Some Exceptions
• Safety and Disinfection Changes in the Exam Lane
• CEO Challenge: Train Opticians on “Selling”
• Glaucoma Patient Resources Provide Support
• Also Notable

Drs. Daniel and Fitzgerald recommend using these tactics to help get patients back to baseline.

Understand patient goals. “If the patient is a lawyer who reads tiny print all day, their motivation is different from a patient whose main goal is to regain the ability to drive,” says Dr. Daniel. Vision therapy is very creative because you think outside the box for each patient, she says.

Promote restful sleep. Improving the amount and quality of a patient’s sleep is “tremendous” for visual recovery, notes Dr. Fitzgerald. “Sleep quality affects the ocular motor skills, which tie into concentration, focus, attention, and performance,” she adds.

Provide visual evidence. To give patients perspective on their progress, record patients’ vision exercises, says Dr. Daniel. Patients often don’t remember how bad they were when they started.

Know the timetables. “Knowing when to refer is a legal, moral, and ethical issue,” asserts Dr. Fitzgerald. “The average patient will show progress in about four weeks. But if a patient doesn’t improve at all by the two-week mark, consider referring the patient to a neuro-optometrist,” she advises. OM