Medical Equipment Database: Difference between revisions

Acronym for Visual Instrument/Sensory Organ Replacement. The VISOR is a device worn over the eyes that allows a profoundly blind patient to see by direct stimulation of the optic tract, bypassing damaged structures further forward. Typically VISORs are used with patients with various forms of retinopathy, optic neuropathy or cortical blindness. The system works by means of a pair of neural implants that connect to the optic chiasm (the nerve plexus in the brain that coordinates impulses from the optic nerves and sends them to the occipital lobe for visual processing). The VISOR receives input from the visible light spectrum as well as the ultraviolet and infrared regions. (Note that a normally-sighted patient cannot "borrow" a blind patient's VISOR to give himself super vision; the VISOR's output looks like a random display of colors to the normal eye.) VISORs are not often used in modern practice; the current standard of care is to replace the damaged eye(s) with an ocular implant, a bioengineered artificial eye.