Is atropine as effective as patching for treatment of amblyopia?
There is only one study of sufficient power available addressing this question. In 1992 the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group, comprised of 72 investigators in North America, reported results of their multicenter randomized controlled trial. Eligibility was age less than 7 years, but able to do a single surrounded HOTV visual acuity test. In addition, eligibile patients had strabismic, anisoemtropic or both forms of amblyopia. Acuity in the amblyopic eye was in the moderate impairment range from 6/12 to 6/30 inclusive. In the Amblyopia Treatment Study, 215 children were randomly assigned to receive patching, and 204 were assigned to receive atropine eye drops. Researchers found that 79 percent of those receiving the eye patch were treated successfully, and that 74 percent of those receiving the atropine were treated successfully. This difference is clinically insignificant. Although researchers found that vision in the amblyopic eye improved faster in the patching group, the dif
