CLINICAL INVESTIGATION Eye patching as a treatment for amblyopia in children aged 10–16 years Elif Erdem • Gu ¨l Yılmaz C ¸ ınar • Deniz Somer • Necati Demir • Ayse Burcu • Firdevs O ¨ rnek Received: 8 May 2010 / Accepted: 12 January 2011 / Published online: 7 June 2011 Ó Japanese Ophthalmological Society 2011 Abstract Purpose To investigate the effects of full-time patching regimen on the treatment of amblyopia in children aged 10–16 years. Methods Forty-seven patients with a mean age of 12.09 ± 1.65 years were included in this study. All of the patients received eye patching for the entire day, 6 days a week, during the first 3 months. The patients who achieved visual acuity of 0.00 logMAR at the third month were provided with additional patching treatment (4–6 h/day). On the other hand, the patients who showed no change in their visual acuity or an increase of less than 0.00 logMAR at the third month had 3 more months of eye patching for the entire day, 6 days a week. Results Prior to treatment, the best mean visual acuity of the amblyopic eyes was 0.48 ± 0.25 (range 1.00–0.15) logMAR. After follow-up, the visual acuity of the ambly- opic eyes was 0.20 ± 0.22 (range 1.00–0.00) logMAR. Thus, visual acuity in the amblyopic eyes improved by 0.2 log unit or more in 38 of 47 patients (81%). Conclusions The present results show that patching in older children with amblyopia improves visual acuity with no serious complications. The use of patching in children to improve amblyopia seems promising. Keywords Amblyopia Á Patching treatment Introduction Detecting amblyopia in early childhood increases the chances of successful treatment. The termination point of the critical period in the development of clear vision in humans has not been well established. In addition, the upper age limit for the treatment of amblyopia remains questionable among pediatric ophthalmologists. Although there are reports stating that treatment starting before the age of 5 years achieves the best outcomes [1, 2], recent studies show that children older than 10 years and some adults can show improvements in the affected eye as well [3–11]. Patching has been used to treat amblyopia for centuries [12]. Full compliance of children and families with patching for the treatment of amblyopia is critical in order to optimize the desired outcomes. In the present study, we investigated the effects of eye patching on amblyopia treatment and binocular functions in addition to the factors that affect the responses to treatment in children aged 10–16 years. Patients and methods Forty-seven patients [32 boys (68.1%) and 15 girls (31.9%)], 10–16 years of age, diagnosed with amblyopia at the Strabismus Unit of the Ophthalmology Department between October 2004 and April 2007, were prospectively examined for the purpose of determining the effectiveness This study was conducted at the Ankara Training and Research Hospital Department of Ophthalmology. E. Erdem (&) Ophthalmology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University, Seyhan Park Evleri, M blok, 2/3 Yuregir, 01370 Adana, Turkey e-mail: elif.erdem.1979@gmail.com; erdem@cu.edu.tr G. Y. C ¸ ınar Á D. Somer Á N. Demir Á A. Burcu Á F. O ¨ rnek Department of Ophthalmology, Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey 123 Jpn J Ophthalmol (2011) 55:389–395 DOI 10.1007/s10384-011-0029-z