Successful Dichoptic Therapy for Amblyopia in a Child Unable to Tolerate Occlusion Therapy due to Autism Spectrum Disorder

TL;DR

A child with autism spectrum disorder successfully improved vision through dichoptic therapy when traditional eye patch therapy was not possible.

Contribution

Demonstrates the effectiveness of dichoptic therapy using Occlu-pad for amblyopia in children with ASD who cannot tolerate eye patches.

Findings

Visual acuity in the right eye improved from 0.5 to 0.0 after 3 months of dichoptic therapy.

The child achieved a 92% compliance rate with home-based therapy using Occlu-pad.

Dichoptic therapy is a viable alternative for managing amblyopia in children with ASD.

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face challenges with occlusion therapy using eye patches owing to the sensory sensitivity, rigid behaviors, and communication difficulties associated with ASD. In this study, we report the case of a child with ASD who had significant difficulty with eye patch therapy for anisometropic amblyopia and was treated with visual acuity training using Occlu‐pad, a dichoptic therapy device. This treatment led to marked improvement in visual acuity and high compliance. After 3 months of home‐based therapy for 30 min per day, the best corrected visual acuity in the right eye improved from logarithm of minimum angle of resolution of 0.5 to 0.0, with an average compliance rate of 92%. This case highlights the importance of flexible treatment approaches tailored to individual patient characteristics in managing amblyopia in children with ASD and also demonstrates the potential utility of dichoptic therapy using Occlu‐pad.

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