Most children with refractive amblyopia achieved 20/25 vision after 1 year of spectacle correction

Treating bilateral refractive amblyopia with spectacle correction improved binocular visual acuity in children aged 3 to 9 years, according to a study by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group. Most eyes achieved 20/25 or better vision within 1 year, the study authors said.

David K. Wallace, MD, MPH, and colleagues investigated the amount and time course of visual acuity improvement during treatment of bilateral refractive amblyopia in 113 children with an average age of 5.1 years. The children were enrolled at 27 community- and university-based sites and were provided with optimal spectacle correction.

The researchers defined bilateral refractive amblyopia as 20/40 to 20/400 best corrected binocular visual acuity in the presence of 4 D or more of hypermetropia by spherical equivalent, 2 D or more of astigmatism or both in each eye, according to the study.

After 1 year, mean binocular visual acuity improved from 0.50 logMAR units, or 20/63, at baseline to 0.11 logMAR units, or 20/25, with a mean improvement of 3.9 lines, the authors reported.

Specifically, at 1 year, the 84 children with baseline binocular acuity of 20/40 to 20/80 had a mean improvement of 3.4 lines and the 16 children with baseline acuity of 20/100 to 20/320 had a mean improvement of 6.3 lines, they found.

The cumulative probability of achieving a visual acuity of 20/25 or better was 21% at 5 weeks, 46% at 13 weeks, 59% at 26 weeks and 74% at 52 weeks, the authors noted.

The study is published in the October issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology.