Interocular Axial Length Difference and Treatment Outcomes of Anisometropic Amblyopia

Purpose: to evaluate the effect of interocular axial length (al) difference on outcomes of treatment for anisometropic amblyopia in comparison with normal participants. methods: in this historical cohort study, 83 patients with anisometropic amblyopia were divided into two age groups, 70 children (mean, 7.86 ± 1.56 and range, 5–15 years) and 13 adults (mean, 26.46 ± 10.87 and range, 16–45 years). the control group consisted of 43 non-amblyopic children and 17 non-amblyopic adults. treatment outcomes after a period of one year were defined as successful or unsuccessful when posttreatment amblyopic corrected distance visual acuity (cdva) was reported as ≤0.9 versus cdva ≤ 0.8, respectively. al was measured using a lenstar ls900 (haag-streit ag, switzerland). results: fifty-nine patients showed satisfactory treatment outcomes (55 children and 4 adults), while unsuccessful treatment outcomes were observed in 24 patients (15 children and 9 adults). the mean of amblyopia treatment duration was 1.24 ± 0.76 years. the mean of interocular al difference in all patients, control, successful and unsuccessful treatment outcome groups were 0.49 ± 0.70mm (range, 0.00–3.89 mm), 0.12 ± 0.07 mm (range, 0.02–0.41), 0.33 ± 0.23 mm (range, 0.00–0.99 mm), and 1.81 ± 0.80 mm (range, 1.14–3.89 mm),respectively. in both age groups, the mean of interocular al difference in patientswith unsuccessful treatment outcomes was greater than those with successful treatment outcomes and that of the control group (p < 0.001). conclusion: the results of this study suggest that the outcome of anisometropic amblyopia treatment may depend on the interocular al difference.