Intensifying amblyopia treatment necessary when compliance is poor

A multidisciplinary approach must be taken among general practitioners, pediatricians and educators to identify children with amblyopia, a group of Australian researchers say. Further, treatment must be intensified and individualized for patients between 15 and 30 months of age because of the higher rate of noncompliance in that group, they add.

Brian Chua, BSc, MB, BS, MPH, and colleagues at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead reviewed the charts of 127 children undergoing amblyopia treatment to determine presenting ages, referral sources, amblyopia type and treatment compliance.

General practitioners and pediatricians provided most of the referrals. Mean presenting age was 32.9 months. No significant relationship was seen between presenting age and amblyopia type. However, deprivation amblyopia was usually identified earliest and pure anisometropic amblyopia was identified latest. Compliance to patching did not significantly differ between sexes or between types of amblyopia. Compliance was best among the youngest and oldest children, with the worst compliance group falling between the ages of 15 and 30 months.

The study is published in the April issue of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.