Diagnosis and Management of Residual Amblyopia in a Non-compliant Patient: a Teaching Case Report

Amblyopia is a common neurodevelopmental visual disorder for which there are well-established evidence-based treatment paradigms involving appropriate refractive correction followed by occlusion and/or atropine penalization. Nevertheless, evidence is limited for when to cease therapy, particularly for patients with poor compliance, if visual acuity (VA) plateaus at a sub-optimal level. This teaching case report illustrates the clinical dilemma of determining when to cease therapy in a child with residual amblyopia. Although the patient described in the case showed substantial initial VA improvements, amblyopia therapy was prolonged because of reluctance to cease when VA failed to improve beyond 0.4 logMAR.