Visual rehabilitation using video game stimulation for Stargardt disease

BACKGROUND: Stargardt disease, a common form of heredomacular degeneration, leads to severe vision loss. Video game play can act as a positive biofeedback to reinforce visual rehabilitation and fixation training. It can potentially lead to visual improvement. This study was done to explore the possibility of visual improvement using video game stimulation for visual rehabilitation in Stargardt disease. METHODS: We evaluated eight patients with Stargardt disease who had nonatrophic retina surrounding the area of degeneration at the macula. They underwent extensive baseline testing to determine their Snellen visual acuity, pattern visual evoked potentials, retinal sensitivity, and fixation analysis with microperimetry, electroretinography, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, and autofluorescence. They were given 40 h of training with video game play and re-evaluated on all the tests. RESULTS: They showed both subjective and objective evidence of improvement in visual functions and vision-related tasks. Visual acuity (from 0.77 ± 0.29 to 0.71 ± 0.32 logMAR, p = 0.027), contrast sensitivity (from 1.28 ± 0.25 to 1.46 ± 0.17, p = 0.002), and fixation stability (log of bivariate contour ellipse area from 6.67 ± 0.52 to 5.85 ± 0.84, p = 0.022) improved significantly. The retinal sensitivity improved by 0.47 ± 3.39 dB (p = 0.67). Stereopsis and pattern visual evoked potentials showed improvement. A low vision questionnaire documented subjective improvement. CONCLUSION: Visual stimulation by video game play can result in improvement in visual acuity, fixation pattern, and retinal sensitivity with improvement in vision-related tasks. It can serve as a simple rehabilitatory technique for patients with central vision loss due to Stargardt disease.