Homonymous Hemianopia

This is a condition sometimes found after a stroke or some injury to the brain. It is not a condition affecting the eye. Hemianopia relates to the brain's impaired ability to receive the information transmitted to it through both eyes. The person experiencing it has difficulty seeing one side of their surrounding environment, or will report that one side appears different from the other. Hemianopia may be complete or partial. In the case of complete, the person affected can only see to one side when looking straight ahead. With partial hemianopia, objects appear different in clarity or brightness. Other effects include double vision and difficulty interpreting visual information (especially if the view is complex or involves many moving people). Sometimes, the visual image may completely disappear or distort.

How Does It Affect Daily Living?

Hemianopia can cause loss of confidence with doing simple daily tasks. The person may feel unsafe crossing the road or going shopping, for example. Loss of half the visual field will affect many daily tasks including reading, travel and daily living skills.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Hemianopia is not progressive but lack of understanding may cause frustration and needless dependence on others. Some hemianopias resolve naturally over time. The majority are permanent. Despite this, there is a great deal which can be done to assist someone with hemianopia. SEETEC (a service provided by the Guide Dogs Association) uses a portable machine to assess and provide training exercises in effective visual scanning. These scanning techniques help to compensate for vision lost. This assists the person to gain confidence and safety related to walking, personal care, household tasks, leisure and other aspects of daily living. SEETEC helps the person affected to understand their condition and learn how to compensate for it.