Case of Oscillopsia successfully treated (shaking vision syndrome)
By: Dr. M. Kyu Chung
Recently, a 33-year-old woman presented to our office complaining of shaking, bouncing vision for a year and a half. For example, when she focused on a door handle, she could see the door frame and door shake and bounce. She had seen two ophthalmologists, one neuro-ophthalmologist, two neurologists, one endocrinologist, one allergist, and one chiropractor. One neurologist told her she had the beginnings of multiple sclerosis. Her medical work-up included multiple blood tests, CT and MRI scan of her brain and spine. None of the tests revealed any clue to the cause of her problem and her doctors were baffled.
Her past medical history: hip surgery for torn labrum 2013, wisdom teeth extraction, tonsil and adenoid surgery. Multiple scars from minor lacerations two scars on her scalp, one chin scar, a belly ring piercing scar, ear piercings, and history of a sports head injury.
Her other significant complaint was chronic fatigue and anxiety.
Our evaluation revealed a normal eye exam with no nystagmus. However, on autonomic response testing she had three abnormal wisdom teeth scars.
Visit one: She had all her scars treated with neural therapy using ½% lidocaine injections[i]. The gum region near her abnormal wisdom teeth was injected with lidocaine followed by ozone. She was also given a general autosanguinous therapy for immune system support
Visit two(one month later): She reported marked reduction of her shaking vision that lasted approximately 6 days before her symptoms returned. The same treatment as visit one was administered with the addition of injections of lidocaine into her pierced earring scars.
Visit three (three months later): She reported 100% improvement of shaking for 3 days, and moderately good improvement for 2-3 weeks and then gradual worsening of her symptoms. She happened to complain of new neck pain. Autonomic response testing revealed: her head scar, chin scar, belly ring piercing scars and bilateral sphenopalatine were abnormal.
Treatment consisted of lidocaine injections to all the abnormal scars, lidocaine/ozone injections to her wisdom teeth scars; prolotherapy of her neck with autosanguinous blood and low dose immunotherapy drops were given made from a sample of material taken from between her teeth obtained with a floss tape.
Visit #4 (two months later): Marked improvement in vision that remained without any return of the shaking vision. Neck pain and stiffness 95% better.
Discussion: Oscillopsia, shaking vision, is not a rare condition. It can be associated with more serious neurological conditions but there appears to be limited treatment options. Through over 25 years of our experience with using neural therapy we have seen a multitude of a variety of neurological symptoms that resolve with simple procaine/lidocaine injections into abnormal scars. We have seen unexplained double vision, sensitivity to light, and blurred vision improve with neural therapy. This is the first case of oscillopsia that we have encountered.
Neural therapists believe that there develops a “focus” of abnormal nerve firing from old scars that create symptoms of pain, numbness, dysesthesia, tingling, muscle weakness, muscle imbalance that can be quite distant from the scar. Procaine by turning off the nerve for 15-20 minutes somehow allows the nerve to reset itself back to a more normal setting. Hence the improvement lasts much longer than 20 minutes. It is analogous to when we shut off our cell phone when it is working abnormally, and it resets back to normal when turned back on.
There is also a secondary healing response from the needling of the area. The hypodermic needle creates microscopic bleeding in the scar which promotes a healing inflammatory response. It is very common when we treat a visible raised unsightly scar, there is an obvious visible improvement in the appearance of the scar with each subsequent treatment. Hence neural therapy injections have both an immediate as well as a delayed secondary healing response that then results in a lasting response.
In this patient the oscillopsia was likely caused by abnormal nerves arising from several of her head and neck scars.
Note to physicians:
Neural therapy is one of the most benign methods of resolving many severe and even odd neurological conditions. We highly recommend that you seek teaching seminars on this important method of treatment. For more information about neural therapy training, please see: ABOUT THE ACADEMY – NAANT
[i] All lidocaine injections were ½% lidocaine and saline