For decades, vision specialists believed that a condition called amblyopia, or "lazy eye," must be treated before a child turns 7 to be successful. But a new study, involving Vanderbilt Children's Hospital researchers, finds it's not too late for older children.
Amblyopia is a leading cause of vision impairment in children affecting about 2.2 million in the United States.
The National Eye Institute's (NEI) nationwide study, led locally by Sean Donahue, M.D., Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, found that patching the strong eye to allow the weaker eye to `catch up` can work well into the teenage years.
In the study half of the children were given the standard treatment of prescription glasses, while the other half used a patch over the strong eye to `work` the weaker eye two to six hours a day. A total of 507 children ages 7 to 17 were enrolled nationwide. The Tennessee Lion's Eye Center was one of two participating vision centers in the state of Tennessee. The results, which appear in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology found more than half of the older children who got the patching treatment improved their vision significantly, while 20 percent of the children with glasses improved their vision.