Acupuncture makes news in the ophthalmic world.

A recent randomized and controlled study of acupuncture treatment in older children, between 8 and 12 year-old, with anisometropic amblyopia (lazy eye due to optic power difference of the 2 eyes) showed better results than the current standard of eye-patching treatment.

Ambyopia, aka, lazy eye, is the medical term used when the vision in one of the eyes is reduced even though the eye is anatomically and structurally normal. During the development milestones, the eye and the brain are not working together properly and the brain favors the other eye and thus not allows a proper development of connections between the lazy eye and the brain. If no treatment was initiated during young age, the individual can have permanent poor vision in the lazy eye depending on the severity. This condition affects about 3% of children.

• "Acupuncture...has been used for treating ophthalmic disorders such as dry eye, myopia, and amblyopia. In recent years, the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated a correlation between vision-related acupoint stimulation and visual cortical activation, suggesting a possible basis for the use of acupuncture in treating amblyopia."

Medscape Ophthalmology: Acupuncture May Be Effective for Amblyopia in Some Older Children