A preliminary report about the relation between visual acuity increase and compliance in patching therapy for amblyopia

Abstract

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to establish a relation between visual acuity increase and compliance in children who have been prescribed patching therapy for their amblyopic eye. METHODS AND MATERIALS In 14 new amblyopic children (mean age 4.3 ± 1.9 years) compliance was measured electronically during one week, six months after starting patching therapy, with an Occlusion Dose Monitor (ODM), distributed through house visits. The children were diagnosed with anisometropia (5), strabismus (4) and anisometropia and strabismus (5). The degree of amblyopia was expressed as the ratio between the acuity of the amblyopic eye and the acuity of the good eye. Satisfactory increase in acuity was assessed by means of the following three criteria: acuity amblyopic eye / acuity good eye >75%, acuity exceeding 0.5 E-chart, three lines LogMAR acuity increase. RESULTS Fourteen reliable recordings were obtained, which showed that children who did not patch, or were patched inconsistently, did not reach satisfactory acuity increase. CONCLUSION There is indeed a statistically significant relation between acuity increase and measured compliance.