All-day eye patch 'not needed for lazy eye'
Publication Date:20/09/2007
Children with a lazy eye do not need to wear an eye patch for the whole day to correct their vision, a new study suggests. Wearing a patch for just a few hours a day could be just as effective.
What do we know already?
Some children have better sight in one eye than the other. This can happen for lots of reasons, such as a squint, or being short-sighted in one eye.
Over time, the child's brain starts to ignore the pictures it gets from the bad eye, and only uses the good eye. This causes the condition called lazy eye. It's serious, because it can permanently damage the child's sight in that eye.
There are two main treatments for lazy eye. The first is to fix whatever the original problem was. So, if your child is short-sighted in one eye, he or she will need glasses.
Secondly, your child's brain has to be forced to pay attention to the weak eye again. This is usually done by putting a patch over the good eye. Traditionally, children have been told they need to wear a patch all day, and keep using it for several years.
But lots of children don't like wearing a patch. They say it's uncomfortable, and they're worried about being teased. Researchers have now looked at whether a patch could work if children wear it less of the time.
What does the new study say?
Researchers looked at 80 children with a lazy eye, all between 3 and 8 years old. The children all wore glasses if they needed them. Researchers asked half the children to wear a patch for 12 hours and half to wear a patch for six hours.
Almost every child in the study wore their eye patch for less time than they were told to. Children who were supposed to wear a patch for 12 hours a day wore it for just over six hours, on average. Children told to wear a patch for six hours tended to wear it for about four.
But children who wore their patch less of the time did just as well as children who wore it for longer. Only children who wore their patch for less than three hours a day did less well. So, the researchers think that wearing an eye patch for three to four hours a day might be enough, and be easier for children to do.
Most children only needed about 14 weeks of treatment to get the full benefit. But the study didn't look at whether children with more severe eye problems would need longer-lasting treatment.
Tell me more about the study's findings
There have been other studies which also show that patches can help over a shorter time. But so far, doctors haven't wanted to change their recommendations without being sure. In this new study, the eye patches had a sensor, accurate to within a minute, to record how long children wore them for. So the researchers are confident about their results. They didn't have to worry about children forgetting how long they'd worn their patches for, or saying they'd worn them when they hadn't.
Where does the study come from?
The study was done by researchers at City University in London and McGill University in Montreal. It appeared on the website of the BMJ, which is published by the British Medical Association. The study was paid for by a charity called Fight for Sight, which funds research into eye problems.
How reliable are the findings?
The study was quite small so probably a bigger study is needed to make sure its findings are correct. Also, the two groups of children often didn't wear the eye patches for as long as the researchers intended. This could make the results unreliable. Not many children wore their patches for more than six hours a day, so there could be an extra benefit to wearing a patch for longer which did not show up in this study.
What does this mean for me?
If your child has a lazy eye, talk to his or her specialist about how long treatment with an eye patch should last. If your child doesn't like wearing their patch to school, ask if they could just wear it in the mornings and evenings. It's best if your child follows whatever the specialist recommends.
Older children may need to wear a patch for longer than young children to get the same benefit. As children get older, their eyes take longer to adjust to treatment. A specialist may also recommend longer treatment for more severe vision problems.
What should I do now?
A lazy eye is usually discovered during an eye test. Health authorities in the UK often invite children for a test at around 3 years old. If you're worried about your child's sight for any reason, you can arrange a test earlier than this. Talk to your doctor or health visitor to arrange it.
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© BMJ Publishing Group Limited ("BMJ Group") 2007. All rights reserved
This information does not replace medical advice. If you are concerned you might have a medical problem please ask your Boots pharmacy team in your local Boots store, or see your doctor.
