The effects of CAM vision stimulator for bilateral amblyopia of different etiologies.
BACKGROUND
To evaluate the association between bilateral amblyopia and the effects of CAM vision stimulator.


METHODS
This retrospective study was carried out between January 1994 and July 2004. The 105 children enrolled were all younger than 7 years old and had bilateral amblyopia. All children wearing full-correction glasses regularly received CAM vision stimulation once per week. The patients' age, initial best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), final BCVA, and the number of CAM sessions needed to achieve a visual acuity (VA) > or = 0.8 were recorded.


RESULTS
The major cause of bilateral amblyopia was refractive error. In this study, the types of refractive error were classified as astigmatism (> 2.0D, 61 cases), hyperopia (> 3.0D, 17 cases), and myopia (> 4.0D, 12 cases). The myopic group showed significantly poorer visual outcomes than the other children after CAM treatment (p < 0.05). However, older children patients had better initial BCVA, and the hyperopic patients had the better outcomes in this study.


CONCLUSIONS
CAM treatment for bilateral amblyopia can achieve satisfactory improvement in 3 months in most instances. The myopic group and children younger than 4 years old had worse visual outcomes after CAM treatment.
Huang
Hsiu-Mei
HM
Department of Ophthalmology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Kuo
Hsi-Kung
HK
Fang
Po-Chiung
PC
Lin
Hsiu-Fen
HF
Lin
Pei-Wen
PW
Lin
Sue-Ann
SA
D000550:Amblyopia / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*