Prismatic scanning method for improving visual acuity in patients with low vision.

Frequently, patients with macular lesions and others who are visually handicapped do not receive adequate low vision care by ophthalmologists if a routine trial of low vision aids has no gratifying results. This paper describes for the first time a technique in which functional vision was achieved with the aid of prismatic scanning in patients for whom the usual low vision aids had proved ineffectual. The procedure in which prisms are used to achieve functional vision in patients with macular lesions in uncomplicated, inexpensive, and rapid; indeed, it can be used by an ophthalmologist in routine office practice with existing equipment.