Occlusion therapy and Revitalvision therapy for Amblyopia

Amblyopia is a medical condition where the vision in one eye is reduced, early in life. It is also called Lazy Eye as the eye seems to move without control. Here the brain fails to process input from one eye favouring another, resulting in the decreased vision in the unfavoured eye.

Any  condition that affects the focussing of the eye can lead to Amblyopia, like irregularly shaped or inaccurate alignment of eyes; nearsightedness or farsightedness. It is recommended that all children between the ages of four and five have their vision tested. This rarely affects both eyes. 

The two common methods of treatment are:

Occlusion Therapy for children and young adults: 

When correcting refractive errors using spectacles/contact lenses fails, Occlusion Therapy is introduced. The vision to the healthy eye, yes, the healthy eye, is occluded or blocked by means of an external eye patch, forcing the brain to rely on the weaker eye.

However, Over Patching or Over Occlusion of the good eye can lead to Reverse Amblyopia, which is bad. This is why it is done only 4-6 hours a day. While the treatment can continue as long as the vision improves, it is not advised, if after 6 months there is no improvement, and other methods need to be sought.

Revitalvision Therapy for ages above 6 years.. 

This is a noninvasive method based on visual stimulation of perceptual learning and is specific to each individual. Through a computerised training programme based on what are called Gabor Patches, the eye’s sensitivity to contrast and clarity of vision, especially form vision, is improved by facilitating neural connections in the brain.

Visual Perception, or the ability of the brain to interpret what the eye sees, depends on the input from eyes and the working of the visual cortex. Revitalvision improves vision quality by enhancing this. Perceptual learning means practising certain visual tasks leading to visual performance improvements. Repetitive tasks initiate neural modifications leading to neural efficiency, thereby leading to improved vision.

Blog Reviewed By: Dr. Lalit Kumar

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