Full time occlusion VS part time occlusion in treatment of monocular amblyopia

To compare improvement in Best Corrected Visual Acuity (BCVA) by Full Time Occlusion (FTO) or Part Time Occlusion (PTO) technique in children with monocular amblyopia.

This randomized control trial was conducted at Combined Military Hospital, Gujranwala from April 2018 to June 2019. A total of 52 children, diagnosed with non-pathological ametropic amblyopia were randomly divided in two groups. Both underwent cycloplegic refraction and assessment of BCVA. Group A underwent FTO for eight weeks with patch removal only during sleep. Group B underwent PTO for 8 weeks with patching done for six hours a day, out of which 1-2 hours were utilized in near work. Final BCVA was checked at eight weeks, and compared between two groups.

Mean age of study population was 11.06±3.30 years. Mean BCVA before amblyopia treatment was 0.70±0.20 logMAR, and mean BCVA after eight weeks of amblyopia treatment in both groups was 0.29±0.18 logMAR. Difference in BCVA between both groups was statistically significant (p= 0.023). Mean improvement in lines on Snellen's Visual acuity chart was 1.92±1.35 lines. In our study, 92% of children in FTO group and 66.6% of children in PTO group achieved BCVA of 6/12 or better.

Full time occlusion in children with monocular amblyopia results in greater improvement in BCVA as compared to part time occlusion of six hours per day.