"Acupuncture https treatments to treat one type of lazy eye https proved as good as the traditional patching of the eye https used to help the eyes https work together according to a new study. Acupuncture https could potentially become an alternative treatment to occlusion patching therapy for ambylopia lazy eye https the researchers write. The study conducted in China is published in the Archives of Ophthalmology. U.S. experts familiar with the study call it interesting but say the treatment needs more study and wonder if it would catch on in the U.S. Acupuncture for Lazy Eye Vs. Patching Study Details While some previous research has found acupuncture for lazy eye effective the researchers couldnt find a study that directly compared acupuncture with conventional treatments such as patching. So Dennis Lam https MD a researcher at the Joint Shantou International Eye Center of Shantou University and Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues evaluated  children ages  to  with the condition known as anisometropic amblyopia in which there is a difference in the degree of nearsightedness https or farsightedness https between the two eyes https They assigned  children to the acupuncture group and they received five treatments a week. Acupuncturists used five different points in the head face hand and leg.  The children were instructed to do an hour per day of nearvision https activities such as homework or computer work. Another  children wore a patch over their normal eye for two hours daily a typical regimen and were also asked to do an hour of nearvision https activity a day. Acupuncture for Lazy Eye vs. Patching Results At  weeks visual acuity with eyeglasses https improved by about . lines on the vision chart in the patched eyes and . lines in those who had acupuncture. An improvement of two lines or more occurred in nearly  of those in the patching group but nearly  of those in the acupuncture group. Ambylopia was evaluated as resolved in nearly  of patched eyes but nearly  of the acupuncture group. These results suggest that the treatment effect of acupuncture is equivalent to that of patching for anisometropic amblyopia in older children Lam writes. But at  weeks the resolution rates were similar in the two groups  of the patched group and  of the acupuncture group. Acupuncture for Lazy Eye A Closer Look Lam cant explain exactly how the acupuncture for lazy eye might work. Acupuncture has been shown to increase blood https flow to the brain https and eye stimulating retinal nerve growth factors and leading to metabolic changes in the central nervous system https he writes. These actions may explain the effect on the amblyopia he speculates. Acupuncture vs. Patching Two experts who reviewed the study for WebMD but were not involved in it call the study scientifically sound but they note that it is small and that acupuncture is much more widely accepted in China than elsewhere. The amount of improvement here almost two lines on the eye chart is a lot says Michael Repka MD a professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Unviersity School of Medicines Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore. However he notes it is an initial report and a single study. Some of the improvement could have come from wearing glasses he says. Theres a time commitment for this he says of the acupuncture. These kids went five days a week. He also cites expense and parent time to get the child to the acupuncturist as potential drawbacks. The patch is typically worn two hours a day can be worn at home and is inexpensive he says. The extra time to go to an acupuncturist may be a drawback agrees Matthew Gearinger MD an associate professor of ophthalmology and medicine at the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. The fear of needles he says is probably not much of a problem with the older children studied. You can probably talk them into it he says. If a U.S. parent wanted to try acupuncture to help their childs anisometropic amblyopia Gearinger says he would probably agree with continued followup with an ophthalmologist."