Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
Major articlesRisk of amblyopia recurrence after cessation of treatment
Section snippets
Patients and methods
Our study was supported through a cooperative agreement with the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health and was conducted by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group at 30 clinical sites. The protocol and informed consent forms were approved by institutional review boards for each site, and the parent or guardian of each study patient gave written informed consent. Study oversight was provided by an independent data and safety monitoring committee appointed by the
Patient demographics
The average age of the 145 patients was 5.9 years; 49% were female and 86% were white. Ninety-two (63%) of the 145 patients had previously participated in a randomized amblyopia treatment trial.1, 2, 3 At the time of enrollment, 112 patients (77%) stopped patching treatment and 33 patients (23%) stopped atropine treatment. The mean visual acuity at enrollment was 0.13 logMAR in the amblyopic eye (equivalent to 20/25-) and 0.04 logMAR in the sound eye (equivalent to 20/20-). Table 2 lists
Discussion
In a prospective observational study of successfully treated amblyopic children less than 8 years of age, in whom treatment had been discontinued, we found an overall amblyopia recurrence risk of 24% (95% CI 17% to 32%) during 1 year of follow-up. Recurrence risk was similar among those patients who stopped patching and those who stopped atropine.
There have been few previous studies that have addressed the amblyopia recurrence risk at a specific time after cessation of treatment. The majority
Acknowledgments
Writing Committee: Lead authors: Jonathan M. Holmes, BM, BCh; Roy W. Beck, MD, PhD; Raymond T. Kraker, MSPH. Additional writing committee members (alphabetical): William F. Astle, MD; Eileen E. Birch, PhD; Stephen R. Cole, PhD; Susan A. Cotter, OD; Sean Donahue, MD.; Donald F. Everett, MA; Richard W. Hertle MD; Ronald V. Keech, MD; Evelyn Paysse, MD; Graham E. Quinn, MD, MSCE; Michael X. Repka, MD; Mitchell M. Scheiman, OD.
The pediatric eye disease investigator group
Clinical sites that
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Cited by (0)
Supported by a cooperative agreement from the National Eye Institute EY11751
Correspondence: Jonathan M. Holmes, BM, BCh, c/o Jaeb Center for Health Research, 15310 Amberly Drive, Suite 350, Tampa, FL 33647; (e-mail: [email protected].)
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The writing committee and a list of the members of the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) participating in the trial appear in the Acknowledgments.