In cases of unilateral cataract, occlusion therapy during the preschool years was not associated with parental stress and poor motor development in the child.
- After unilateral congenital cataract surgery in children, occlusion therapy, which involves covering the unaffected eye, is prescribed.
- According to a recent study, wearing an eye patch from 42 to 54 months is not associated with parental stress, poor motor development, behavioral problems and poor self-perception in the child.
- “These results do not support changing current recommendations for patching children.”
When a child has a unilateral congenital cataract, it means they are born with blurred or opaque vision in one eye which, if left untreated, can lead to blindness in that eye. Its treatment is based on surgical intervention. After the operation, occlusion therapy, or hiding the eye that has not been affected by the cataract with a bandage, is prescribed to prevent amblyopia. This is a deterioration of vision that occurs because the brain does not take into account the image it receives from one of the eyes, according to the MSD Manual.
53 children with visual acuity of 20/200 or less benefited from occlusion therapy
“Parents may wonder how long their child should wear an eye patch and whether prolonged periods of occlusion therapy may affect their development or cause undue stress on the child or family, especially those who have poor vision in the treated eye”, indicated researchers from George Mason University (United States). Recently, they revealed that families whose children have unilateral congenital cataracts can sleep soundly because continuing to cover their eye with a bandage does not negatively impact their stress levels and its development.
To reach this conclusion, scientists carried out a study published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. As part of this work, they used information collected between 2006 and 2016 for the Infact Aphakia Treatment Study. Data on occlusion therapy, called patching here, were available for 47 of the 53 children with visual acuity of 20/200 or less. Among them, 12 young patients wore an eye patch for less than 15 minutes per day, 11 children between 16 and 119 minutes per day, and 24 volunteers at least 120 minutes per day for 12 months. “At ages 4.25 and 10.5 years, caregivers reported parental stress and child behavior problems. Motor skills were assessed at age 54 months. “
Continuing to wear an eye patch ‘is not likely to cause significant harm to families or children’
Parental stress, motor development, behavior problems, and child self-perception were similar across all levels of patching. For example, after adjusting for gender, there was a nonsignificant difference between mean stress scores for parents who reported minimal patching compared to parents who reported patching at least 120 minutes per day. “These results do not support a change in current recommendations for patching children. Parents can be reassured that continuing to apply patches is not likely to cause significant harm to families or children “concluded Carolyn Drews-Botschlead author of the study.
