A pilot study of children with amblyopia treated by the gratings method.

A total of 6 patients, 2 with anisometropic, 2 with strabismic and anisometropic, and 2 with strabismic amblyopia treated with the 'gratings method' showed more than 2 lines of improvement in linear visual acuity. Patient attention and interest and repeated testing of the visual acuity were uncontrolled factors in this study. Moreover, the detailed visual tasks performed by the amblyopic eye may in themselves be the reason for improvement. Clearly a careful study which controls these possibilities is needed before a claim can be made that the 'gratings' per se offer an improved method of treatment of amblyopia.