Occlusion with high plus contact lenses in the treatment of strabismic amblyopia - a case series

Introduction: Amblyopia is a common disease, and interventions like patching treatment are well studied. When standard therapy fails, sometimes uncommon treatment options become necessary. Methods: We present three cases of patients with severe strabismic amblyopia with initial visual acuities of 20/400, 20/2000 and 20/160 who failed conventional treatment and subsequently received treatment with high-powered contact lenses (HPCL) of either + 22D or + 25D strength. Results: Visual acuity markedly improved in all three cases: 20/20, 20/50 and 20/25, respectively. Conclusion: While amblyopia treatment with HPCL will never be first-line therapy, our results are encouraging and show that this form of penalization should be considered if conventional therapy fails.