Trial reportJournal of AAPOS : the official publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus2024
Patch-free streaming contrast-rebalanced dichoptic cartoons versus patching for treatment of amblyopia in children aged 3 to 5 years: a pilot, randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Journal of AAPOS : the official publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Analysis of patient adherence to emerging treatment tools for improving visual functions in amblyopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of optometryPooled it
- Advances in behavioral vision training for the treatment of childhood amblyopia: a narrative review.Translational pediatrics · 2026Review
- Amblyopia in 2026: A State-of-the-Art Review of Multidimensional Phenotyping, Response Heterogeneity, and Clinical Considerations.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of RCTs on Efficacy of Conventional vs. Emerging Treatments for Amblyopia.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Differential Effects of Balanced and Imbalanced Binocular Stimulation on Visual Cortex Responses in Amblyopic Children.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Baseline and outcome stereoacuity of children with anisometropic amblyopia undergoing dichoptic amblyopia treatment.Journal of AAPOS : the official publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus · 2025Article
- Leveraging neural plasticity for the treatment of amblyopia.Survey of ophthalmologyReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWe developed and tested a dichoptic treatment designed for younger children that can be viewed freely and involves a dichoptic manipulation of a popular animation series that enables contrast-rebalancing without disrupting fusion. Our aim was to assess whether this novel amblyopia treatment is superior to patching in children aged 3-5 years.
methodsA total of 34 children with amblyopia were randomly assigned to contrast-rebalanced dichoptic cartoons (4 hours/week) or patching (14 hours/week) for 2 weeks. Children in the cartoon group continued watching cartoons for an additional 2 weeks. Designed to target the youngest and most treatable children, the dichoptic cartoons presented the entire scene to the amblyopic eye at 100% contrast, while the fellow eye view was presented at reduced contrast with the main character omitted. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), stereoacuity, suppression, and manual dexterity were measured at each visit.
resultsAfter 2 weeks, improvement in amblyopic eye BCVA was greater for dichoptic treatment than for patching, with a mean improvement of 0.11 ± 0.08 versus 0.06 ± 0.09 logMAR, respectively (P = 0.04). Stereoacuity, suppression, and manual dexterity did not improve significantly more in the dichoptic group than the patching group at 2 weeks. After 4 weeks of dichoptic cartoon treatment, mean visual acuity improvement in the dichoptic group was 0.16 logMAR (95% CI, 0.10-0.21).
conclusionsIn our study cohort, a contrast-rebalanced dichoptic cartoon was more effective than patching in treating childhood amblyopia after 2 weeks. Dichoptic cartoons that rebalance contrast to overcome suppression provide an additional treatment option for amblyopia in young children.
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Registered trials
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