What is Amblyopia or Lazy Eye, and amblyopic treatment

Amblyopia:

Amblyopia (lazy eye) is poor vision in an 

eye that did not develop normally during 

childhood. It commonly affects one eye but 

may also involve both eyes. It's generally 

caused by lack of use of one eye, when 

brain 'favors' one eye over the other. 

Amblyopia (lazy eye)

Amblyopia in child:

The visual system of the child is not fully 

developed at birth. The visual brain cells of 

a child are developing during their first 

decade of life. Any insult to the child's 

vision during this time period can lead to 

amblyopia. 

Amblyopia in child

Squint in Amblyopia:

Squint is the commonest cause of 

amblyopia. The brain to avoid double 

vision ignores the image from the deviating 

eye. This leads to poor visual development 

of the deviating eye and hence amblyopia. 

Unequal refractive error (anisometropia) 

means that the two eyes have different 

refractive errors. Because the brain cannot 

"balance" this difference, it picks the eye 

that is "easier" to use and develops a 

preference for this eye only. The eye with 

greater refractive error is suppressed and 

thus gets amblyopic.

 

Squint in Amblyopia

Normal Eye View V/S Amblyopic Eye View 

Any form of stimulus derivation to either 

one or both eyes in early childhood may 

lead to a severe form of amblyopia. These 

causes for stimulus deprivation may be 

ptosis, cataract, glaucoma, patching or any 

other obstacle that blocks the vision in the 

eye.

 

Normal Eye Vs Amblyopic Eye

Detecting amblyopia in child is difficult

as the child may not be aware of having one 

strong eye and one weak eye. If the child 

has a squint or some other abnormality, the 

parents or neighbours may notice that 

something is wrong. Poor vision in an eye 

may point towards a possibility of 

amblyopia. Remember, poor vision in an 

eye does not always mean amblyopia. Its  

important to rule out causes of poor 

vision in child. 

Amblyopia in child

In most of the cases the amblyopia is 

treatable. The treatment involves 'forcing' 

the brain to use the weaker eye and thus 

stimulating its visual development. This is 

done by patching the better eye. The 

schedule of patching is decided by the 

ophthalmologist depending upon the degree 

of amblyopia and the age of child. 

Amblyopia should be treated as soon as 

possible. The earlier the amblyopia is 

detected and the treatment started, the 

better are the results. The aim is to 

stimulate the brain to use the suppressed 

eye before permanent change has occurred, 

so that it gets a chance of normal 

development. Generally speaking, an 

amblyopia that is not treated by 8 years of 

age has a poor chance of recovering the 

vision.

If an amblyopic eye is not treated by 8 

years of age, the amblyopic eye may 

permanently stay weak.

 

disadvantages Of Amblyopia:

Both eyes cannot be 

used simultaneously and hence depth 

perception (three-dimensional vision) is not 

present. Many occupations are not open for 

people who have good vision in one eye 

only. 

It is important to give best possible vision 

to the amblyopic eye even if the other eye is 

seeing well. The importance of this 

becomes obvious, in case the person loses 

the other (better) eye, sometime later due to 

some injury or disease. 

 

Amblyopic View

Treatment for amblyopia:

The success of amblyopia treatment largely 

depends upon the motivation of parents and the cooperation of the Child Patching 

of the better eye, especially when the 

amblyopic eye has very poor vision is not 

tolerated well by the child. The parents 

have to understand the importance of this 

treatment and should explain the same to 

the child to ensure better cooperation. 

The other factors that determine the success 

of treatment are the severity (depth) of 

amblyopia, the age at which the treatment is 

started (the earlier the treatment is started, 

the better are the results), any other 

complicating factor in the eye preventing 

sufficient gain of vision, e.g., glaucoma, 

cataract, retinal or optic nerve disorders 

My child has squint and amblyopia. 

Which should be treated first? 

Amblyopia has to be treated first in all 

these cases. Once the amblyopia has been 

taken care of, the surgery may be done for 

squint correction. 

Sometimes the compliance with occlusion 

therapy for amblyopia is hard. Parents of 

children prescribed patching treatment find 

themselves obliged to manage the 

treatment. This involves dilemmas and 

tensions, with many parents describing 

children's distress, particularly in the early 

stages of patching treatment. Parents are 

highly sensitive to the credibility of the 

treatment, but are sometimes confused by 

information given by relatives or friends. 

There is evidence that parents are likely to 

abandon or modify treatment if no 

improvement could be detected or if the 

child continued to suffer socially or 

educationally. Parents describe a range of 

strategies for facilitating patching, 

including explanation; normalization; 

rewards; customizing the patch; 

establishing a routine; and enlisting the help 

of others. Whatever their practices in 

relation to patching, parents are keen to 

defend their behaviour as that of a "good 

parent". 

Conclusion:  Amblyopia: Amblyopia (lazy eye) is poor vision in an Amblyopia in child Squint in Amblyopia: Squint is the commonest cause of Normal Eye Vs Amblyopic Eye Detecting amblyopia in child is difficult as the child may not be aware of having one