pleoptics
Pleoptics is an active treatment for amblyopia with eccentric fixation, introduced in the 1940s and named from the Greek words for more and eyesight. The original method dazzled the eccentrically fixating retinal area with bright light while a disk projected onto the fundus protected the fovea, then stimulated the macula with flashes of light. Treatment continued until the central scotoma shrank and fixation became central.1
A second method used afterimages to restore, for a time, the fovea's superiority over the retinal periphery. A modified ophthalmoscope, the euthyscope, shielded the fovea with a black disk while bright light dazzled the periphery, leaving a negative afterimage with a clear spot at the fovea.1,2
Pleoptics required older, cooperative children and weeks or months of daily sessions. Later studies questioned its long-term effectiveness and its superiority over conventional occlusion, and pleoptics is no longer practiced. The method remains the only option for an older amblyopic patient who loses the good eye and whose amblyopic eye does not recover vision on its own.1
More detail
In Europe the demands of pleoptics led to vision schools (Sehschulen), where children were admitted and readmitted for several weeks or months of daily therapy.1 Evidence on the risks of excessive light exposure raises concern about the afterimage technique.2
Sources (8)
- von Noorden and Campos, Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility, ch. 24
- Pickwell's Binocular Vision Anomalies, ch. 13
- Bogdan, A. 1992. Results of pleoptic treatment in eccentric fixation amblyopia. Oftalmologia, 36(1), pp.25-29.
- Jablonski, M. and Tomlinson, E. 1979. A new look at pleoptics. Ophthalmology, 86(12), pp.2112-2114.
- Loudon, S.E. and Simonsz, H.J. 2005. The history of the treatment of amblyopia. Strabismus, 13(2), pp.93-106.
- Noorden, G.K. and Lipsius, R.M. 1964. Experiences with pleoptics in 58 patients with strabismic amblyopia. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 58(1), pp.41-51.
- Priestley, B.S., Hermann, J.S. and Nutter, A.H. 1963. Home pleoptics: increasing therapeutic importance. Archives of Ophthalmology, 70(5), pp.616-624.
- Rutstein, R. and Daum, K. 1997. Anomalies of Binocular Vision: Diagnosis & Management. St. Louis: Mosby.
Reviewed October 2026