NCT01418820

Paraorbital-Occipital Alternating Current Stimulation Therapy of Patients With Post-Chiasmatic Lesions

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 32 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Magdeburg · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Visual field areas, which are not absolutely blind, are hypothesized to have some residual capacities that constitute their potential for vision restoration. Vision restoration can be achieved by varies methods including behavioral training and electrical brain stimulation such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS) which are able to influence the excitability and activity of cortical areas. It is hypothesized that transorbital alternating current stimulation (tACS) can improve the residual field of vision in patients with post-chiasmatic lesions.

Conditions

• Complete Hemianopia
• Incomplete Hemianopia
• Scotoma
• Quadrantanopia
• Stroke
• Hemorrhage
• Brain Trauma

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Verum stimulation	10 days (2x 5 working days), daily transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS) is applied with a device generating weak current pulses in predetermined firing bursts of 2 to 9 pulses. The amplitude of each current pulse is below 1000 µA. Current intensity is individually adjusted according to how well patients perceived phosphenes, e.g. any sensation of flickering light in response to the rtACS stimulation. Stimulation frequencies were between the individual alpha frequency peak and below flicker fusion.
DEVICE	Placebo stimulation	10 days (2x 5 working days), daily sham-stimulation with the same electrode montage set-up that is used for verum transorbital alternating current stimulation (rtACS). Minimal sham-stimulation was performed with single bursts (approx. one per min) of electrical currents at a given frequency of 5Hz and individually adjusted current amplitude.

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-03-01
• Primary completion: 2013-12-01
• Completion: 2013-12-01
• First posted: 2011-08-17
• Last updated: 2019-07-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany