title: Using liquid crystal glasses to treat ambyopia in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of liquid crystal glasses (LCG) in the treatment of children with monocular amblyopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 14 amblyopic eyes of 14 children with monocular amblyopia were enrolled in the study. LCG with appropriate refractive correction were ordered for each patient. Each patient was examined with the new LCG before treatment and monthly thereafter. The parents were informed about the use, care, and charging of the glasses. Best-corrected visual acuity was measured as Snellen decimal notation and converted to logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) for statistical analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the study population was 7.4 ± 1.4 years. Ten patients (71%) had anisometropic amblyopia; 2 (14%), strabismic amblyopia; and 2 (14%), mixed amblyopia. The mean follow-up period was 4.0 ± 1.2 months (range, 3-7 months). The mean duration of using LCG was 8.2 ± 2.5 hours daily (range, 4-12 hours). All of 14 patients used the LCG as suggested. The mean logMAR best-corrected visual acuity of the amblyopic eyes was 0.6 ± 0.3 at baseline, improving to 0.3 ± 0.2 at final follow-up (P < 0.001). No side effects were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study demonstrated that LCG wear improved visual acuity in children with monocular amblyopia. Additional studies are needed to determine whether this effect is due to the LCG on/off feature or to refractive correction alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Gaziantep University Medical School, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Erbağcı
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Gaziantep University Medical School, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Seydi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okumuş
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University Medical School, Rize, Turkey. Electronic address: veysioner@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Veysi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Öner
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Gaziantep University Medical School, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erol
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coşkun
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Gaziantep University Medical School, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Oğuz
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Çelik
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Gaziantep University Medical School, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Burak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ören
mesh_terms: D000550:Amblyopia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D015858:Anisometropia / Q000150:complications; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005139:Eyeglasses; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050866:Liquid Crystals; D008297:Male; D013285:Strabismus / Q000150:complications; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology