Office Treatment Helps Child Eye Problem

A combination of office and home treatments can help a childhood eye problem, researchers say. The problem is convergence insufficiency. It means that the eyes don’t turn inward (converge) easily. The new study compared four treatments in 221 children. One group did home therapy. This involved focusing on one letter on a pencil while moving it closer to the nose. Another group did this plus computer exercises. A third group had weekly office sessions with a therapist, plus home exercises. The fourth group did placebo activities to mimic the office treatment. After 12 weeks, 75% of the children who got office and home therapy had better vision or normal vision. In the other groups, 33% to 43% had similar success. The study is in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.