Amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye,” is the lack of normal visual development despite the eye being healthy. If left untreated, it can cause legal blindness in the affected eye. About 2% to 3% of the population is amblyopic

Symptoms
Amblyopia generally starts at birth or during early childhood. It is often not obvious and has no symptoms. Parents and even health care professional therefore are not aware that there is a problem.

Causes
The two common types of amblyopia are Strabismic Amblyopia and Refractive Amblyopia.

Strabismus :Strabismus is the condition in which the two eyes are not pointing in the same direction and are not well aligned. The brain then receives two different images, resulting in double vision. In young children the visual system has not reached full maturity and the brain is able to suppress the image from one eye to avoid double vision.

Refractive Amblyopia

Unilateral Amblyopia occurs when the brain does not receive a clear image from one eye because of a large difference in the prescription (near-sightedness, farsightedness and/or astigmatism) of the two eyes. Here too, the brain does not develop the information from that eye (channel).

Bilateral Amblyopia (amblyopia in both channels/eyes) occurs when the power (prescription) in both eyes is very high, and therefore clear vision does not develop in either eye.

It’s important to correct amblyopia as early as possible, before the brain ignores vision in the affected eye. Adults, do not despair, because amblyopia is treatable in adults as well. Brain plasticity enables even adults to address amblyopia.

Amblyopia leads to poor visual acuity, but more importantly, it leads to poor eye coordination and poor depth perception. It can lead to clumsiness, tripping or knocking into things, and difficulty with catching a ball accurately. It may lead to difficulties with reading and learning.

Treatment of Amblyopia

Since there are numerous causes of amblyopia, the treatment must match the problem. Early treatment is usually with the need to use glasses, vision therapy, and/or eye patching. While detection and correction before the age of three is considered to offer the best outcomes, children up to age 9 years can also be successfully treated.

Surgery may be needed for co existing eye conditions such as cataracts, droopy eyelids or crossed eyes.

After the cause of the amblyopia is found, the child will need to use the weaker eye most of the time, so it will get stronger. To make the child use the weaker eye, a patch can be put over the stronger eye. This makes the weaker eye become stronger. Patches may be used all day or part of the day, depending on the child’s age and vision.

The treatment usually lasts until vision is normal, or until vision stops getting better. For most children, this takes several weeks.