Side Vision Awareness Glasses
The most common field loss secondary to stroke, brain surgery, tumors and trauma is a hemianopsia or field defect whereby one half of the visual field on the right or left is missing. If you are missing your left or right half of your visual field then side vision awareness glasses can help expand the awareness of objects that are located in the part of field that is missing. Previous attempts to expand the visual field have had technical and cosmetic challenges. SVAG (Side Vision Awareness Glasses) are a new invention intended to address this. SVAG were developed by Dr. Errol Rummel a fellow of the International Academy of Low Vision Specialists. He is director of the Low Vision Care Center of Jackson N.J. and director of the Neuro-optometric rehabilitation clinic at the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation in Pomona N.J.
Dr. Evans is trained in the prescribing of the SVAG glasses and prescribes SVAG glasses for patients that suffer from hemianopic field loss.
SVAG glasses offer the following:
- High abbe value (low chromatic distortion)
- A high index of refraction (a thin lens design)
- No thick button on the lens
- No segmented prism strip in the lensAvailable in your prescription
No fresnel lenses so improved visual acuity and contrast
SVAG glasses have the largest viewing area in the area of vision loss and the patient only has to move their eyes a few millimeters to view the prism directed image.
SVAG glasses are more attractive as the front of the lens is smooth and when worn the SVAG portion is hardly noticeable.
Hemianopsia can leave people disoriented, insecure, and struggling to make it through the day. In addition there are hemianopsia-related safety issues, such as bumping into furniture, walking into people at the mall, falling off a curb, and difficulty performing other activities of daily living. SVAG can give those with hemianopsia more freedom, independence, and safety. Using SVAG may even allow some of those with hemianopsia to continue driving (which may require special on-the-road testing and Motor Vehicle Department approval, depending on state law).
