Looking beyond occlusion: A novel perspective for amblyopia treatment

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Orthoptek (Magnocellular Stimulator OMS; Carditek Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore) as a treatment modality for amblyopia and strabismus. METHODS: Thirty-five patients with amblyopia of any type, reduced vision in one or both eyes with no binocular vision and or poor stereopsis were included in the study. All patients underwent a minimum of 10 sessions of therapy with each session lasting for a cumulative period of 60 min. At the end of the 10(th) session, patients were evaluated for improvement in visual acuity, stereopsis, Binocular single vision and amount of strabismus, if any. RESULTS: The mean logMAR corrected distance visual acuity improved from 0.31 ± 0.34 and 0.32 ± 0.44 to 0.08 ± 0.12 and 0.07 ± 0.12 posttreatment in the right eye and left eye, respectively. Following therapy, 34 (97%) patients showed improvement in stereopsis, orthophoria was noticed in 28 (80%), and binocular single vision was noted in 33 (94%). All patients were followed up for 1 year with maintenance therapy and none showed any regression. CONCLUSION: We believe that top–down impulses and the role of the attention area in the parietal cortex have not been studied well enough in the treatment of amblyopia. Our device addresses these issues and corrects the visual deficits in amblyopia. However, the study needs validation of this pilot study from independent centers. The same will be done at some stage