Exploratory study of a binocular therapy for childhood amblyopia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploratory study of a binocular therapy for strabismic and mixed amblyopia: home-based “BBV treatment“ for children.
IRAS ID
140644
Contact name
Steven Dakin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Amblyopia is the most common cause of childhood visual impairment. It is characterised by reduced vision in one eye that persists despite optical correction, surgery and/or patching. There are several functional consequences of amblyopia, including impaired stereovision and increased “crowding” (vulnerability to visual “clutter”). Current treatment for amblyopia consists of (a) correction with spectacles and then (if required) patching or blurring of the unaffected eye. Although effective there are issues of compliance with patching (children often refuse to wear them) and neither treatment typically restores stereovision. We seek approval for an exploratory study of an alternative home-based therapy. We propose to provide the full treatment to 16 children (5 to 16 yrs)with pure strabismic(n=8)or mixed(n=8) amblyopia (identified within clinics specified at SSI) whose acuity has stabilised after optical correction but who remain amblyopic. Rather than immediately patching we would have them spend one hour a day, for a maximum period of six months, viewing movies at home while wearing special “3D” electronic glasses. This will allow us to balance the visibility of the images reaching each eye which we believe will promote improved acuity in the affected eye as well as development of stereovision. Because children enjoy watching movies we believe this procedure will have high levels of compliance (which we will monitor by measuring chidrens’ ability to discriminate videogame characters that will appear during movie presentation). Before and after treatment children’s acuity, crowding, and stereovision will be assessed at a non-clinical psychophysical battery of tests, about 45 minutes long.
The outcome of this ~12 months project will have important consequences for how we manage the treatment of amblyopia and will seed further research to look at the development of therapies that will both be more appealing to children and be effective, maybe more, in a brief amount of time at treating their vision.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/0179
Date of REC Opinion
7 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion