Treatment of unilateral visual impairment in preschool children modestly improves visual acuity

Question

How effective is treatment for unilateral visual impairment detected by preschool vision screening?

Study design

Multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Main Results

Glasses plus patch treatment slightly but significantly improved visual acuity (both uncorrected and best corrected) compared with no treatment in children with mild to moderate unilateral visual impairment at 52 weeks (see Table 1; see notes). Glasses alone modestly improved best corrected visual acuity compared with no treatment; however there was no significant difference in uncorrected visual acuity between these groups.

Table 1 LogMAR visual acuity scores by treatment group at 52 weeks.
Visual acuity	No treatment	Glasses alone	Glasses plus Patch
	Mean logMAR	Mean logMAR	Mean difference (95% CI) from no treatment	Mean logMAR	Mean difference (95% CI) from no treatment
Uncorrected	0.424	0.381	0.043 (-0.05 to 0.013)	0.336	0.088 (0.01 to 0.17)
Best corrected	0.301	0.216	0.085 (0.02 to 0.15)	0.193	0.109 (0.05 to 0.17)

Authors’ conclusions

Treatment with glasses alone or in combination with patches can modestly improve visual acuity in children with mild to moderate unilateral visual impairment, compared with no treatment.