Electronic glasses have been proven as effective as eye patches for lazy eye in children. Credit: American Academy of Ophthalmology
Programmable digital glasses for lazy eye work as well as eye patching, study shows, improving vision by about 2 lines on the reading chart after 3 months. First new effective lazy eye treatment in 50 years. Amblyopia remains the most common cause of visual impairment in children.The child needs to receive treatment by the age of 8 or so while their eyes and brain are still developing, or he or she could become blind in the weaker eye.
Unfortunately, its hard getting kids to comply with lazy eye treatments like eye patches or medicated drops.Nearly 15% refuse to take eye drops at all. Both drops and eye patches work based on the occlusion method. This blocks vision in the eye with the best sight, forcing the brain to rely on the so-called lazy eye. During the process, vision improves though many children will still need glasses to correct their eyesight.
In comparison, the electronic glasses used in this study combine vision correction and occlusion. The lenses can be filled to fit a child’s vision prescription. Because the lenses are liquid crystal display (LCD), they can also be programmed to turn opaque, occluding vision in the left or right eye for different time intervals, acting like a digital patch that flickers on and off.
Researchers at the Glick Eye Institute at Indiana University recently tested the effectiveness of occlusion glasses compared to patching in a randomized clinical study. They recruited 33 subjects with lazy eye between age 3 and 8 who wore spectacles to correct their vision. One group wore an adhesive patch for 2 hours daily. The other wore Amblyz™ occlusion glasses for 4 hours daily. In the study, the lens over the eye with better vision switched from clear to opaque every 30 seconds. After 3 months, both groups of children showed the same amount of improvement in the lazy eye, gaining two lines on a reading chart.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Amblyz occlusion glasses as a medical device. They are available in the United States from eye care professionals for around $450.
http://www.aao.org/newsroom/news-releases/detail/programmable-electronic-glasses-provide-children-e
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