Keeping children with a lazy eye in the dark for ten days could help them see better

A study on kittens showed that their eyesight would improve after extended periods in the dark

Lazy eye, or amblyopia, affects one in 25 children



It can lead to problems seeing details and judging distances

Keeping children with a lazy eye in the dark could help them see better, research suggests.

In ‘very exciting’ experiments, the vision of kittens with the common condition lazy eye rapidly returned to normal after they were kept in complete darkness for ten days.

The Canadian researchers described the improvement as ‘startling’ and said the work paves the way for better treatment of children.

(stock photo) The treatment could help the one in 25 children who have a lazy eye

Lazy eye, or amblyopia, affects one in 25 children. Problems with the connections between the eyes and brain lead to them seeing better out of one eye than the other and lead to difficulty in seeing detail and judging distances.

Treatments, such as eye patches, are far from perfect, partly because of difficulty in getting children to comply with them, and, left untreated, the condition can cause blindness in one eye.

The researchers, from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, placed kittens with lazy eye in a windowless room, which was inside second, larger room, which was in turn, inside a third, even bigger room - a ‘Russian doll’ structure that ensured complete darkness.

The kittens were fed and cared for in the room for ten days, before being let out and subjected to eye tests.

Just a week later, the ‘bad’ eye could see as well as the good one.

Writing in the journal Cell, researcher Kevin Duffy described the recovery as ‘amazing’.

Scientists at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia showed that kittens with the disorder showed signs of improvement after spending time in the dark

He believes that keeping the kittens in the dark caused the brain to revert to a more immature state.

This allowed the faulty connections between the brain and the lazy eye to correct themselves.

Eventually, darkened rooms, or even blindfolds, could be used to treat children and perhaps adults with lazy eye.

However, much more work is needed before this can be contemplated and the researchers stress people shouldn’t try the treatment at home.

Possible problems include the ‘good’ eye being harmed by being kept in the dark.

Practicalities, such as whether it would be possible for patients to have a short break in the light, also have to be considered.

Professor Chris Hammond, an expert in vision problems from King’s College London, described the research as ‘very exciting’.

But he cautioned that any treatment would have ‘huge’ ethical and practical concerns.

Similar work carried out at Cardiff University last year caused uproar among animal rights campaigners.