Título

ATROPINE 1% FOR THE TREATMENT OF AMBLYOPIA

Objetivo

To evaluate the efficacy of using atropine 1% for treating amblyopia.

Método

In this retrospective study we analysed the charts of patients that were diagnosed with amblyopia and were prescribed atropine 1% three times per week to treat amblyopia. These patients were submitted to previous treatment with patching for amblyopia and were non compliant to paching anymore. Data concearning visual acuity of both eyes, refraction and type of amblyopia were collected. The treatment was ended when best VA was achieved or no gain was observed in 6 months of use. Patients who are still in use of atropine were also included.

Resultado

Twelve patients were included, 6 (50%) male and 6 (50%) female, aged between 2-8 years. Three of them underwent strabismus surgery and one had congenital cataract and underwent vitrectomy and phacoemulsification before current treatment with atropine. Concearning type of amblyopia, 3 had anisometropic amblyopia and 9 had strabismic amblyopia. All had already undergone patching, still had some amblyopia and were no further compliant to patching. Patients used atropine 1%, 3 times a week for an average period of 16 months. Baseline VA, interocular difference between the amblyopic eye and the healthy eye were as follows: 8 of them (66.66%) had 2 lines or more and 4 (33.33%) had less than 2 lines of difference. Of all patients, 7 (58.33%) achieved success with equal VA in both eyes, 2 (16.66%) had 1 line difference and 3 (25%) had more than 2 lines of difference between eyes. At the end of this study, 7 patients (58.33%) improved by more than 2 lines with the atropine treatment, 3 (25%) achieved 1 more line and only 2 (16%) had no improvement with the penalty. 66.67% of these patients are still in the use of atropine.

Conclusão

Penalization with atropine appears to be effective in improving final visual acuity, specially in patients who were no further compliant to patching. This is the first study showing effectiveness of atropine 1 % to treat amblyopia in children reluctant to patching.