Is eye patching effective for older children with amblyopia?

Question

Parents of young children with amblyopia are often advised that vision in the weak eye can be improved by covering the healthy eye with an eye patch for a couple of hours every day. At what age does eye patching become less effective? Does the age at which the patching began matter?

Answer 1

Some studies have shown that eye patching has been effective in adults. One study¹ tested teenagers ages 13-17 and found that, combined with glasses and near vision activity, patching was effective in treating lazy eye. In fact there have been studies on treatment of amblyopia in older children/adults as early as 1957², but this study was only performed on seven cases of amblyopia, so while it did show that patching combined with vision therapy did help treat amblyopia. Luckily, scientists have developed other ways to treat it, such as playing Tetris.³

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^{[1] Successful Improvement of Eyesight with Therapy for Patients with Lazy Eye Proven Possible at Later Ages by Many New Scientific Studies}

^{[2] Treatment of amblyopia exanopsia in adults; a preliminary report of seven cases}

^{[3] New hope for adults with amblyopia (lazy eye)}