Session: Poster session A

Effectiveness of Dichoptic office Therapy combined with home monocular virtual reality gaming versus Dichoptic office therapy only, for management of anisometropic amblyopia.

Introduction:

 

Management of amblyopia remains challenging. Contrast-rebalanced dichoptic therapy have been shown to be an effective treatment for childhood amblyopia. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of combining office dichoptic therapy with home virtual reality gaming for management of anisometropic amblyopia.

 

 

Methods:

 

In this prospective, randomized, interventional study, 50 children aged 4-12 years with anisometropic amblyopia were randomized into two groups.

 

The first treatment group included 25 children who wore glasses full time and used the dichoptic digital device (Remmed VR) 1 hour per week at our office and 1 hour per day for the other 6 days at home using virtual reality gaming headset (oculus quest) after occluding one of its binocular lenses; facing the sound eye.

The second control group included 25 children who wore glasses and used the dichoptic digital device only 1 hour two days per week at our office. 

 

The primary outcome was visual acuity (VA) change in the amblyopic eye from baseline at time of starting treatment to 12 weeks.

 

Results:

 

After 12 weeks of treatment, the amblyopic eye in the first combined treatment group showed a significant improvement in VA over the second monotherapy control group (4  lines vs. 2.5 lines).

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Due to a more engaging patient experience, combining dichoptic digital device with our modified sound eye patching, by using a virtual reality headset after covering one of its binocular lenses, showed more effectiveness and thus improved VA in amblyopic eyes compared with using the device only at the office.