Red glasses and visual function in retinitis pigmentosa

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Abstract
As a consequence of animal studies reduction of the light regimes have been tried on patients with retinitis pigmentosa. The trials have been very limited and have not given reason for hope that such reduced light therapy may be beneficial. However, RP patients trying red glasses have reported acute subjective improvement of their visual function. It was the purpose of this study to try to document the reports more objectively. Five visual functions were tested with and without red glasses with the following results: 1. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. For one volunteer a small reproducible improvement was found. 2. Color vision. In most cases deterioration was found of already deficient color vision. 3. Visual fields. For volunteers with relatively preserved vision no difference or slight deterioration was found. For the other volunteers slight improvements were found. 4. Intraocular light scatter. No differences were found. 5. Dark adaptation. Improvements were found when the glasses were used as adaptation aid according to the method of Trendelenburg (rod function). For cone function no difference was found upon continuous wearing of red glasses. In conclusion: use of red glasses does not seem to be of great benefit as a rule. On the other hand, apart from the reduction in color discrimination no serious disadvantages seem to be inherent in their wear by RP patients.

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