Acupuncture shows promising results in older children with anisometropic amblyopia

Arch Ophthalmol. 2010;128(12):1510-1517.

Acupuncture showed potential as an alternative to patching in treating amblyopia in some children, a Chinese study found.

"In recent years, the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated a correlation between vision-related acupoint stimulation and visual cortical activation, suggesting a possible basis for the use of acupuncture in treating amblyopia," the study authors said.

The randomized trial included 88 children between the ages of 7 and 12 years who had anisometropic amblyopia. Mean baseline logMAR best corrected visual acuity ranged from 0.3 to 0.8.

Forty-three children were assigned to undergo five weekly acupuncture sessions; acupuncture was administered at five insertion sites. Forty-five children were assigned to undergo patching 2 hours daily.

All the children wore glasses and performed near-vision activities for 1 hour daily. Children in the acupuncture group performed near-vision tasks without patching.

Investigators primarily evaluated BCVA in the amblyopic eye at 5, 10, 15 and 25 weeks.

Study data showed logMAR BCVA improved 1.83 lines from baseline in patched eyes and 2.27 lines in acupuncture eyes at 15 weeks. BCVA improved two or more lines in 28 patched eyes (66.7%) and 31 acupuncture eyes (75.6%).

The mean adjusted between-group difference in BCVA was 0.049 lines; the difference was statistically significant (P = .03) and was within the one-line margin of equivalent treatment.

Amblyopia was deemed resolved in seven eyes in the patching group (16.7%) and 17 eyes in the acupuncture group (41.5%).