Part-time occlusion therapy for anisometropic amblyopia detected in children eight years of age and older.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the outcome of part-time occlusion therapy in children with anisometropic amblyopia detected after they were 8 years of age.


METHODS
We analyzed 29 eyes with anisometropic amblyopia in children 8 years of age and older. The mean age was 8.79 +/- 0.98 (range 8-12) years old. The subjects whose best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) did not improve by two lines or better within 2 weeks of wearing glasses full-time were prescribed occlusion therapy for 6 hours a day outside of school hours, along with the instruction to wear glasses full-time. Subjects who complied with occlusion for more than 3 hours a day were considered to comply well.


RESULTS
The major component of the anisometropia was hyperopia in 51.7% of the subjects, and hyperopia plus astigmatism was found in 24.1%. The mean pretreatment BCVA score was 0.51 0.23 (LogMAR). Compliance was 89.66%. The mean posttreatment BCVA was 0.03 +/- 0.01 (LogMAR), and the success rate, based on a posttreatment BCVA of 0.1 (LogMAR) and better, was 96.43%. It took an average of 4.79 +/- 3.35 months to reach the desired posttreatment BCVA. The mean posttreatment stereopsis was 79.78 +/- 37.61 seconds of arc. The recurrence rate was 8%. The visual improvement was related to the degree of compliance (p = 0.000). The time taken to reach the posttreatment BCVA was shorter in subjects with a better pretreatment BCVA (p = 0.019), but it did not relate to the compliance (p = 0.366).


CONCLUSIONS
The most common component of anisometropia detected after 8 years of age was hyperopia. The part-time occlusion therapy, which had been carried out after school hours, was successful in most cases.
Lee
Young Rok
YR
Department of Ophthalmology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chunchon Sacred Heart Hospital, Chunchon, Korea.
Lee
Ju Youn
JY
D000550:Amblyopia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity