Efficacy of part-time occlusion in amblyopia in Indian children

PURPOSE: To study the effectiveness of part-time occlusion (PTO) in different types of amblyopia in Indian population. METHODS: Prospective case series of consecutive cases of amblyopia from a tertiary care center were subjected to PTO of the better eye and monitored periodically for 6 months. Those who failed to improve by 6 months were shifted to full-time occlusion of the better eye and followed for a further 3 months. RESULTS: 175 eyes of 175 patients with amblyopia underwent PTO for 6 months. The mean age of the patients was 10.47 ± 4.69 years (range: 3–26 years). Major subgroups included 94 eyes with strabismic amblyopia and 70 with anisometropic amblyopia. Overall, 168 (96%) children benefited from PTO (improvement being defined as a gain of at least one line of Snellen's visual acuity). The improvement rates for strabismic amblyopes (97.9%) was significantly more than anisometropia (94.3%); P = 0.027. Of the seven patients not responding to PTO, six did not benefit even after full-time patching. CONCLUSION: PTO is a viable and effective modality of management of amblyopia in Indian patients. Strabismic amblyopia was the commonest and responded best to the occlusion therapy in our cohort.