Eye Patching

Study Proves Two Hours of Patching as Effective as Six

In a randomized, multicenter clinical trial, researchers assigned 189 amblyopic children (in the range of 20/40 to 20/80) younger than seven years to receive either two or six hours of daily patching combined with at least one hour each day of near visual activities. The investigators reported their results in the May 2003 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology and concluded that when combined with prescribing one hour of near visual activities, two hours of daily patching produced an improvement in visual acuity that is of similar magnitude to the improvement produced by six hours of daily patching in treating moderate amblyopia in children aged three to seven.