Abstract
Purpose :
Recent studies have suggested that perceptual learning may result in improved acuity in adults with amblyopia. However, most clinicians recommend standard patching combined with active near work in younger patients with amblyopia (< 18 years). The purpose of this study was to determine if standard amblyopia therapy results in an enhancement in visual performance in the amblyopic eye of adult patients.
Methods :
Nine adult patients (age range 18 – 60; average 32.9 ± 16.31) with amblyopia (BCVA 20/40 or worse) due to anisometropia or anisometropia and strabismus were enrolled into the study. The patients received a comprehensive eye examination and wore their best correction for at least four weeks prior to baseline testing to ensure adaptation. They were instructed to patch their non-amblyopic eye for 2 hours per day. While patching, they were to perform near training exercises on the Amblyopia iNET program for 30 minutes and do any near work for the remaining 1.5 hours. The patients had a baseline amblyopia evaluation and came in for 12 weekly study visits, at which time their visual acuity was measured with the E-ETDRS protocol. At 12 weeks, the treatment was tapered off over one month and the patients came in for a final amblyopia evaluation at 24 weeks.
Results :
The patients had a significant improvement in their visual acuity across the weeks (ANOVA, p < 0.001). At baseline, week 12, and week 24, the average letter acuities were 57.6 ± 12.85 (SD), 64.3 ± 11.50, and 64.6 ± 11.72, respectively. Weeks 4 to 24 were significantly different (p < 0.05) from baseline visual acuity. The average acuity improvement over the 24 weeks for the 9 patients was 7.5 letters or 1.5 logMAR lines.
Conclusions :
This study demonstrates that standard amblyopia treatment can result in an improvement in visual acuity in adults with longstanding amblyopia.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.