Abstract
Purpose :
Amblyopia is a major cause of visual disability in children, the mainstay treatment is occlusive therapy which may fail due to loss of vision gain after therapy concludes or patient nonadherence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of PlayStation PortableTM (PSP) as a therapy for amblyopia, the main outcome was visual acuity improvement.
Methods :
We performed a prospective, longitudinal, experimental and comparative study, in which we evaluated a total of 40 patients, 60% were female, aged 3 to 10 years (mean 7.2), with strabismic or anisometropic amblyopia or both, randomized into 4 groups. Parents signed informed consent. All patients used their spectacles for the best corrected visual acuity (BVCA). There were 10 patients per group. Group 1 used PSP and red-green spectacles, interchangeable each day (i.e. one day the red filter was in the right eye, the next day on the left eye). Group 2 used PSP and spectacles with ground glass on the non amblyopic eye. Group 3 used PSP and occlusive therapy on the non amblyopic eye. Group 4 used occlusive therapy in the non amblyopic eye, without the use of PSP.
The activities of groups 1 to 3 using the PSP included watching movies and playing games 1-2 hours a day; group 4 had free activity, as long as it stimulated the amblyopic eye (i.e. watching television).
BCVA was evaluated once a week for 3 months with a Snellen or Allen chart, BCVA was expressed in LogMar. Three months after the therapy was suspended, BVCA was evaluated once a month, for another 3 months.
Results :
The results of the first and last BCVA in LogMar, before and after 3 months of therapy respectively, were as follows: Group 1, initial 0.76 and final 0.4. Group 2, initial 0.93 and final 0.8. Group 3, initial 0.77 and final 0.68. Group 4, initial 0.94 and final 0.67. There was no statistical difference (p=0.25).
The BCVA 3 months after concluding therapy was as follows: Group 1 0.52 LogMar. Group 2 0.81 LogMar. Group 3 0.72 LogMar and Group 4 0.85 LogMar. There was no statistical difference (p=0.44).
Conclusions :
The use of PSP as a therapy for amblyopia in children was effective on improving the BCVA among all tratment subgroups, the greatest improvement was observed in the group of the red-green filter which was the only one with binocular therapy. Three months after the end of therapy there was a decrease in BCVA in all groups, without regressing to the initial (pre therapy) BCVA.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.