To report the clinical outcome of children with unilateral high myopic anisometropic amblyopia who were treated with contact lenses (CL).

Patients who had myopic anisometropia greater than -7 diopters and was treated with contact lenses combined with occlusion therapy during the period between 1998 and 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty-seven patients who were followed up for more than 1 year after treatment were included in the study. Initial and final best corrected visual acuities (BCVA) were compared and factors which influence the visual outcome were analyzed.

A total of 10 out of 27 patients (37%) acquired visual improvement of more than 2 lines. At the final examination, 6 patients (22.2%) had BCVA better than logMAR 0.3 and 10 patients (37.0%) had BCVA better than logMAR 0.7. Medullated nerve fiber and strabismus were the most commonly associated ocular pathologies among the patients. Patients without strabismus or medullated nerve fiber acquired greater visual improvement than patients with these comorbidities. Patients with lower initial refractive error (spherical equivalent) in the amblyopic eye acquired a better final vision. Poor compliance to CL wearing or occlusion therapy adversely affected the final vision.

In the present study of children with unilateral severe myopic anisometropic amblyopia treated with CL combined with occlusion therapy, a third of the patients acquired visual improvement of more than 2 lines. The absence of medullated nerve fiber or strabismus was determined to be a good prognostic factor.