Researchers from the Retina Foundation of the Southwest have found a special type of iPad game was effective in treating children with amblyopia and was more effective than patching.
For the study, researchers reportedly randomly assigned 28 children with amblyopia to either a binocular game or patching treatment. The iPad game required children to wear special glasses that separate game elements seen by each eye so that reduced-contrast elements are seen by the fellow eye, high-contrast elements are seen by the amblyopic eye, and high-contrast background elements are seen by both eyes. For successful game play, both eyes must see their respective game components.
At the end of the study, researchers reportedly found improvement in amblyopic eye BCVA was greater with the binocular game compared with patching. Additionally, the average visual acuity improvement was more than double with the binocular treatment group compared to the patching group. Five of 13 children (39 percent) with binocular treatment reached 20/32 or better visual acuity compared with 1 of 14 children (7 percent) with patching.
The study was recently published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
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Source: JAMA Ophthalmology