ah ha. can't get full text, but got these from the references
Rodriguez SL, Hopman WM, Ten Hove MW.
Eye exercises for treatment of idiopathic cranial nerve VII paresis: pilot study. Can J Neurol Sci. 2012;39:196–201. doi:10.1017/SO317167100013226. [Google Scholar]
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3610/8 ... dbc14d.pdf
"By four weeks, patients who performed eye exercises improved more than those who did not (74.4 versus 47.4 mm Hg, p=0.029). While there was some loss to follow-up, 63.8% of patients performing exercises (7/11) achieved functional recovery at four weeks compared to 12.5% (1/8) of those who did not (p=0.059). Steroids and antivirals were found to have independent positive effects on improving functional outcome"
Zampieri C, DiFabio RP.
Improvement of gaze control after balance and eye movement training in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy: A quasi-randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2009;90:263–270. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2008.07.024. [Google Scholar]
"Results Gaze control after the balance plus eye exercise significantly improved, whereas no significant improvement was observed for the group that received balance training alone.
Conclusions These preliminary findings support the use of balance and eye movement exercises to improve gaze control in PSP."
Kawahira K, Shimodozono M, Etoh S, Tanaka N.
New facilitation exercise using the vestibulo-ocular reflex for ophthalmoplegia: preliminary report. Clin Rehabil. 2005;19:627–634. doi:10.1191/0269215505cr895oa. [Google Scholar]
"Subjects: Eight patients with ophthalmoplegia (total of 15 affected muscles) due to brainstem injury.
Interventions: Basic rehabilitative treatment that included physical therapy, occupational therapy and/or speech therapy for impairments such as hemiplegia, ataxia or dysarthria was administered for two weeks (control treatment). Then,
two facilitation exercise sessions (100 times/day, five days/week for two weeks) were administered in addition to the basic rehabilitative treatment for four weeks to the eight patients with ophthalmoplegia. Ophthalmoplegia was evaluated at study entry and at the end of each two-week session. The goal of the facilitation exercises is to facilitate voluntary eye movement using conjugated eye movements in the direction opposite to passive movements of the head.
Results: After the initial two-week basic rehabilitative treatment, the distance between the corneal margin and canthus decreased slightly. Subsequently, after each of the two facilitation exercise sessions, there were significant reductions in the distance between the corneal margin and canthus compared with that at the beginning of the respective facilitation exercise session.
Conclusion: Facilitation exercises significantly improved the horizontal movement of eyes with ophthalmoplegia due to brainstem injury.
"1) The therapist sits in front of the seated patient and holds the patient's head in the forward facing position with the palms of the hands.
2) In patients with limited abduction of the right eye (right abducent nerve palsy), the patient's left eye is softly covered by the therapist's hand in order to focus the patient's attention on making movements of the eye that is being treated. Then the therapist instructs the patient to look at the therapist's face. (If the therapist does not cover the patient's untreated eye, the patient looks at the therapist's face using the less impaired eye, because the patient does not know which eye is being used
and the less impaired eye moves easily towards the target of the therapist's face.)
3) The therapist instructs the patient to 'look at my face as long as you can'. Then, the therapist quickly turns the patient's head to the left by 30-45 degrees to induce abduction of the right eye facilitated by the vestibuloocular reflex. This procedure inevitably facilitates the reciprocal adducent gaze of the left eye. After 2-3 s, the therapist returns the patient's head to the medial, forward-facing position.
"For each muscle that was affected by ophthalmoplegia, facilitation exercises performed in one direction were repeated 10 times/min for 10 min, 100 times a day, five days a week for four weeks.
"Assessment of the degree of ophthalmoplegia and subjective change in vision
The degree of improvement in horizontal ocular movement was evaluated at maximum adduction or abduction. In cases of abducent nerve palsy, the distance from the external corneal margin to the external canthus was measured. In cases of oculomotorius nerve palsy, the distance from the internal corneal margin to the internal canthus was measured.
"Although the initial two-week basic rehabilitative treatment elicited a small improvement in maximal horizontal gaze,
the addition of facilitation exercises, which were performed 100 times a day, significantly improved ophthalmoplegia not only during the initial two-week session but also during the second two-week session, as well as the subjective difficulty in vision. Facilitation exercises improved ophthalmoplegia not only in patients who had developed ophthalmoplegia relatively recently, but also in patients with chronic ophthalmoplegia who did not show improvement during the initial two-week basic rehabilitative treatment.
"The detailed mechanism through which facilitation exercises induce functional improvements in ophthalmoplegia has yet to be determined. Exercises that facilitate a particular eye movement to the ophthalmoplegic direction mediated by an undamaged neural circuit such as our passive head turn, could be useful for the treatment of
ophthalmoplegia.
Further studies including a randomized controlled study are needed to better define the effectiveness of intensive repetition of voluntary eye movements synchronized with facilitation exercises for the treatment of ophthalmoplegia."
me likes.