Occlusion therapy for amblyopia can improve VA, stereopsis

Treating patients with amblyopia using occlusion therapy can lead to significant improvements in both stereoacuity and visual acuity, a retrospective study found.

Se Youp Lee, MD, and Sherwin J. Isenberg, MD, authors of the study, reviewed the records of 61 consecutive children ages 3.5 to 8 years who were treated at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, Los Angeles. Children were divided into three groups based on the cause of amblyopia. Group 1 included 26 children with anisometropia, group 2 included 20 children with strabismus, and group 3 included 15 children with both anisometropia and strabismus.

All children were treated with occlusion therapy for an average of 36 weeks (range 12 to 102 weeks). Mean follow-up was 52.3 ± 26.4 weeks.

According to the study, all three groups significantly improved both visual acuity and stereoacuity (P < .05), with 52 of the 61 patients (85.2%) showing at least 2 lines improvement at final follow-up.

A significant linear relationship between visual acuity and stereoacuity (P < .001) was also noted. Overall, mean visual acuity improved from 0.43 to 0.78 (P < .0001), while stereoacuity improved from a mean 1167.4 seconds of arc to 101 seconds (P < .0001).

Patients in group 1 (anisometropia only) showed the best stereoacuity outcome, while patients in group 3 (anisometropia and strabismus) showed the best visual acuity outcomes. However, the authors noted there was no statistically significant difference between the groups.

Mean stereoacuity improved from 555 to 55 seconds of arc in group 1, from 881 to 109 seconds in group 2, and from 665 to 99 seconds in group 3.

At final follow-up, stereoacuity improved to 60 seconds of arc or better in 34 of 48 patients (70.8%) who showed stereopsis before treatment. The authors noted that only two patients with initial stereopsis did not improve.

The study was published in Ophthalmology.