Factors Affecting Compliance to Two-Hour Versus Six-Hour Occlusion Therapy Regimens for Treatment of Strabismic Amblyopia

Occlusion therapy remains the mainstay of amblyopia treatment. Opinions, however, vary on the number of hours of daily patching that should be prescribed, ranging from as little as 1 or 2 hours to as much as 24 hours per day [2-4]. No study had provided conclusive data on the optimal number of patching hours, until The Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) conducted a randomized clinical trial, to compare 2 hours versus 6 hours of daily patching combined with 1 hour of near vision exercises, for the treatment of moderate amblyopia in children 3 to 7 years of age. PEDIG concluded that both methods produced an improvement of visual acuity of a similar magnitude [5].