However, many

children do not like the eye patch because of quality of life issues,

such as irritation of the skin and teasing by other children, and will

not fully cooperate, which can lead to treatment failure. Also, patching

forces a child to use an eye that has poor vision, often making compliance

difficult for active children.

A new study

sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the Federal government's

National Institutes of Health, shows that atropine eye drops given once

a day work as well as patching to correct lazy eye. The atropine eye drop

works by temporarily blurring the vision in the unaffected eye, thereby

forcing the eye with amblyopia to be used. This strengthens it and improves

vision.

Just as important,

the study shows that this treatment may encourage better compliance with

treatment by both children and parents. "These results are important

because they provide an effective alternative treatment that helps prevent

permanent vision impairment for children with amblyopia," said Paul

A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of NEI. The advantage of atropine treatment

is that the parent simply places a drop in the child's eye once a day.

With patching, the parent must monitor the child wearing the patch for

six or more hours each day for weeks or months.

"The daily

burden to administer treatment of amblyopia falls on the parent,"

said Sieving. "This study shows that one drop a day of atropine works

as well as patching the eye for some children with amblyopia. Since both

patching and atropine work equally well, the choice of treatment can be

made by the eye care professional in consultation with the parent."

For more information,

visit NEI's Web site, www.nei.nih.gov/health/index.htm.

The National

Eye Institute (NEI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

and is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads

to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment

and blindness. The NIH is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services.

The study was

conducted by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group at 47 clinical

sites throughout North America. The study was funded by NEI and coordinated

Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The children

who were treated in this study will continue to be followed until April

2003, allowing researchers to learn whether there is any longer term advantage

to treating amblyopia with either patching or atropine.

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