Retina Foundation of the Southwest

The Retina Foundation of the Southwest is one of the country’s premier eye research centers. Located in Dallas the foundation is a leader in research to prevent vision loss for children with a lazy eye, crossed eye, jittery eyes, retinopathy of prematurity and children with special needs. There are more than 1300 children who walk through the doors of the Retina Foundation each year, and countless more worldwide will benefit from the advances in treatments technologies and testing made possible by the foundation.

2014 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FOR PEDIATRIC EYE DISORDERS:

• Our Crystal Charity Ball Pediatric Vision Evaluation Center released positive results on a new treatment for lazy eye, using specially designed iPad game apps. The study found that the games can help improve visual acuity in children with lazy eye. Children who dedicated at least two hours a week for four weeks, which is a total of only eight hours of treatment experienced a significant improvement in vision with some children achieving 20/20 vision.
• We also completed a study that established a new, superior way to detect lazy eye and crossed eyes in children called the Pediatric Vision Scanner, which uses a new technology named retinal birefringence scanning. The PVS (which assesses alignment of the two eyes) takes two seconds, is simple to use and is more accurate than assessing rish factors, which is the current standard for diagnosis.
• Our Visual Disorders Laboratory is working on a new study to examine the relationship between certain fatty acids, primarily DHA, and the severity of nystagmus, “jittery eyes.” The method we use to quantify eye movements in children is one of a kind in all North Texas. This study will hopefully find a relationship that could be resolved with supplementation of DHA