Electronic monitoring of occlusion treatment for amblyopia in patients aged 7 to 16 years

Abstract

This study presents for the first time objective treatment and dose response data in amblyopic patients beyond the "classical" treatment age. Electronic monitoring of occlusion and considerable amounts of patching were shown to be feasible. The acuity results indicate that there is a potential for improvement, yet treatment seemed to be less efficient than shown by previous studies in younger patients. Continuation of this research may advance the discussion about age-dependent evidence-based amblyopia treatment, about preschool screening for amblyopia and about plasticity of the visual system.

Mehdi-ODM; a modified digital monitoring of the occlusion therapy for amblyopia

“…The authors presented well, for the first time, objective treatment and dose-response data in amblyopic patients beyond the "classical" treatment age, and demonstrated that it was practical to apply electronic monitoring of occlusion therapy in amblyopic patients [1].…”

“…Thus, data loss due to dropout of patients from the study or due to ODM loss or failure, battery and storing capacity exhaustion was minimized [1]. In term of mechanism, the ODM measures temperature difference between the surface of the eye and the surroundings.…”

“…Therapeutic regimens range from patching for a few minutes a day to all waking hours, and may last many months [3]. It has been shown that objective recording of actual occlusion may lead to a more standardised treatment for amblyopia [1].…”

Response to “Mehdi-ODM; a modified digital monitoring of the occlusion therapy for amblyopia”

“…Dear Editor, Thank you for forwarding the letter by Garebaghi et al regarding our article "Electronic monitoring of occlusion treatment for amblyopia in patients aged 7 to 16 years", published in Graefe's Archive in 2009 [1]. We presented there data of a special group-patients beyond the classical age for amblyopia treatment-collected with the Occlusion Dose Monitor developed in The Netherlands [2,3].…”

Amblyopie

“…klusionszeiten weniger belastend, je jün-ger das Kind ist [3]. So kann in den ersten Lebensjahren, in denen die Plastizität und Lernfähigkeit des Sehsystems am höchs-ten ist (.…”