Impact of short-term virtual reality training on fusion and stereopsis visual function of presbyopia.

PURPOSE: This study is to investigate the short-term effects of virtual reality (VR) visual training on fusion and stereopsis in presbyopia. METHODS: 40 eyes of 20 patients with presbyopia (mean age 47.3 ± 3.5 years; male:female=8:12) were included in this study. Routine examinations included slit-lamp microscopy, visual acuity, refraction, and binocular vision function. VR-based visual function training was administered twice daily, 5 minutes per session. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), uncorrected near visual acuity (UCNVA), best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), addition (ADD), negative relative accommodation (NRA), positive relative accommodation (PRA), near point of convergence (NPC), horizontal deviation, vertical deviation, divergence range, convergence range, random-dot stereopsis, and stereogram stereopsis were observed at baseline, 3 weeks during mid-training, and 6 weeks upon completion of training. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were observed in spherical error, cylindrical error, UCVA, UCNVA, NRA, PRA, NPC, or ADD in follow-ups compared to baseline (p > 0.05). All patients maintained BCVA ≥ 20/20 throughout follow-up. At 6 weeks post-training, divergence (p = 0.03*) and convergence (p < 0.01*) range significantly increased, while random-dot stereopsis time significantly decreased (p = 0.02*), and stereogram stereopsis significantly increased (p < 0.01*). Changes in random-dot stereopsis at 6 weeks post-training showed a significant positive correlation with age (p < 0.01*). CONCLUSION: Short-term VR visual training effectively improves fusion and stereoscopic visual functions in presbyopia.