'Amblyopia’ is poor vision (usually) in one eye, usually due to asymmetric visual development.
The main reason to treat amblyopia is to improve the vision in the weaker eye [the ‘spare tyre’]. If improvement is maintained for 12 months, this improvement is often permanent. The usual aim is a big improvement in vision, so that if the ‘good’ eye ever has a disease or injury then the amblyopic eye is good enough to allow normal function in a classroom and to pass a driver’s licence test (so-called 6/12 or 20/40). This is not as good as 6/6 or 20/20, though we sometimes do achieve that.
As well as poor vision, there are other issues in the way children [and adults] with amblyopia perform many tasks [ Functional impact of Amblyopia, and Self Perception in Amblyopia], and a hint that the best treatments we have are also problematic [ Self Perception in Amblyopia 2].
The treatment of amblyopia is usually one/more of :
1 .Glasses. 25% of the time this is all that’s needed.
2. Patch to the ‘good’ eye [or a blurring eye drop to the ‘good’ eye]. This increases the success rate to over 50%.
3. If the eye is not straight, an operation to straighten the eye may be appropriate
(Amblyopia article for further reading)
There are some modern ‘high tech’ electronic game- based treatments that sound and look terrific. Dr Kowal has been involved in research on this approach [ BRAVO Study]. ; regretfully it is no better than patch or drops
The main aim of amblyopia treatment is to improve the vision. We often also find improvement in :
- 3D vision. This allows better depth perception and small-ball catching skills
- Fine motor skills [link to abstract A below]
- If eye alignment is an issue, this can be more stable and robust after amblyopia treatment.