Caterna for doctors

When a child is diagnosed with amblyopia, the standard treatment is still the occlusion therapy, because of its simplicity and general success in addressing the disorder.

However, in 30% of the cases, occlusion therapy alone does not seem to be effective in restoring visual acuity in the amblyopic eye . The main cause of this failure lies usually in a lack of treatment compliance.

This is where the Caterna Vision Therapy manifests its value: the game-like set-up and the ease of access through a regular online browser have shown to greatly improve the effectivity of the occlusion therapy. Excellent results have been obtained with patients that failed to make any further progress with the occlusion therapy alone. But also patients whose amblyopia was only discovered at a later age, have achieved remarkable vision improvement using the Caterna Vision Therapy. However, in principle, all amblyopic patients could benefit from Caterna’s enhancing effects on occlusion therapy, for instance when there is a time pressure to restore the vision before school starts.

Counterindication: amblyopic patients that have shown to be susceptible to epilepsy should not use Caterna

What is the Caterna Vision Therapy?

The Caterna Vision Therapy is an innovative visual training that is prescribed in addition to the occlusion therapy to treat amblyopia. It is an online therapy that children follow by playing games on their home PC while wearing the eye patch. The games are semi-transparant and displayed against a background with sinusoidal moving patterns. The pattern stimulates the brain to reactivate the connection between the brain and the weak eye. The programme is designed to keep the motivation high for the patients and the parents, thereby improving treatment compliance. At the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), it was discovered that exposure to a dynamic sinusoidal black and white pattern stimulates the neural connection between the amblyopic eye and the visual cortex in the brain. Based on this finding, a treatment was developed that combines this effect with other elements that support the motivation of the patient, increasing treatment compliance: the Caterna Vision Therapy was born. The development was done in close collaboration with leading ophthalmologists in Germany. The effectivity was assessed and confirmed by several clinical trials, of which you can read the findings in the publications on this link.

Caterna Vision Therapy is a CE-certified class 1 (EU) medical treatment and should be prescribed by a medical eye care professional.

The Caterna Vision Therapy is currently being prescribed by more than 250 ophthalmological practices and eye clinics all over Germany. The Caterna Vision Therapy is also being covered over 20 of the major health insurance companies in Germany, confirming the added value of the training.

Caterna Vision Therapy in practice

Before prescribing the Caterna Vision Therapy, all starts with the diagnosis of amblyopia and the prescription of occlusion therapy. Additionally, the Caterna Vision Therapy is prescribed. The patient needs to register on the Caterna website and gets a patient account. The patient account is connected to your practice account as a prescriber. With your practice account, you get your personal online access to the Caterna therapy platform, which allows you to follow the course of the therapy at any time.

The Caterna Vision Therapy is then performed on a daily basis, by the patient at home. The patient needs to do the exercises for about 30 to 45 minutes per day, for a period of 90 days.

Following the prescription, you see the patient in the middle of the therapy (after 6 weeks) for a control examination. At the end of the therapy (after 12 weeks), you perform the final examination.

Of course, the Caterna Vision hotline is at your disposal to assist you with any questions regarding our product or technical troubles.