Scientists use iPad game to treat lazy eye in children

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) — A special iPad game successfully aided children with amblyopia in restoring their visual abilities, scientists reported.

Amblyopia, a disorder better known as “lazy eye”, occurs when vision in one of the eyes is reduced due to an impaired connection with the brain. Affected eyes often look normal, but are unable to function as well because the brain favors the other eye.

In a study appearing in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, a research team tested a new treatment involving a binocular iPad game alongside patching, the standard therapeutic approach. When children in the experimental group were found to outperform those receiving patching, scientists concluded the treatment was a success.

“We show that in just 2 weeks, visual acuity gain with binocular treatment was half that found with 6 months of patching, suggesting that binocular treatment may yield faster gains than patching,” the authors wrote in a press release.

During the experiment, researchers randomly assigned 28 children around the age of 7 to either patching or binocular treatment groups. Children who played the iPad game were required to wear special glasses that separate game elements seen in each eye, encouraging the amblyopic eye to pick up high-contrast elements. The subjects played the game for 1 hour at time over a 2-week period.

Visual improvement for the gaming group was double that of the patching group. In addition to boosting visual abilities at a quicker pace, 5 out of 13 children who received binocular treatment reached a 20/32 or better visual acuity score, compared to 1 of 14 children with patching. Despite the promising results, the authors stress further research is needed.

“Whether long-term binocular treatment is as effective in remediating amblyopia as patching remains to be investigated,” they added.