Amblyopia

The most common cause of vision loss in children of the developed world is a developmental disorder called amblyopia, sometimes called lazy eye. The term amblyopia is used to refer to a heterogeneous group of conditions that present to the ophthalmologist as reduced visual acuity in one eye despite normal ocular health and optimal refractive correction (not correctable with glasses). The fellow (unaffected) eye demonstrates normal clinical visual acuity. Amblyopia usually begins in infancy and becomes acute in childhood. It is associated with multiple conditions, such as a monocular cataract, or more commonly a deviated eye or a difference in near- or far-sightedness between the two eyes. The typical result is poor vision in one eye and severely impaired binocular vision. These abnormalities usually persist ...