A trial of 108 children with severe amblyopia has shown that combined atropine and patching therapy (CAPT) showed superior improvement in visual acuity (VA) compared to patching alone.

Led by Dr Shu Wang of the Eye Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, the trial lasted six months, with children aged from three to 12 years (50% female). Published in Jama Ophthalmology, the study’s authors noted that though CAPT resulted in an improvement in the amblyopic eye’s average VA compared with patching alone (7.2 lines with CAPT vs 5.8 lines), the clinical relevance of this relatively small VA difference could not be determined from this trial.