Amblyopia (lazy eye)

Amblyopia (lazy eye) is when a child’s eyesight remains below normal in an otherwise healthy eye, even when glasses have been prescribed.

A ‘lazy eye’ should be treated in the early years of life before the visual system has fully developed. The earlier it is treated, the easier it is to manage.

What causes amblyopia?

Anything that causes a blurred picture in one or both eyes including:

The eyes being out of line (squint) where one eye turns, most commonly inwards or outwards.
When the eyes do not focus properly (longsight / shortsight or astigmatism).
Cataract.
Droopy eyelid.

How is a ‘lazy eye’ usually treated?

When the sight remains below normal, with glasses on, the lazy eye needs to be encouraged into use. This can be done by either patching the good sighted eye or blurring the good sighted eye by using ointment or drops.

What is the aim of treating a ‘lazy eye’?

In cases when it is not possible to achieve equal vision, the aim is to optimise the vision in the lazy eye. This is to give useful vision in this eye should anything detrimental happen to the ‘good’ eye later in life.

How long will treatment take?

The length of treatment will vary for different children. Generally, most of the improvement in vision takes place in the first six months of treatment.

Treatment will continue until there is no further improvement in vision or until an acceptable level is reached.
We will consider:

How poor the vision is at the start of treatment
The age your child is when treatment is started
The cause of the poor vision
If your child wears their patch/uses drops for the specified amount of time.

What would happen if treatment is late or is not given?

In some cases treatment may not be indicated, for example if the eye is not healthy and would not respond to treatment, or if your child is considered too old. However, in some cases, if the eye is healthy, the condition can be treated even if detected late.

If you choose not to treat your child’s lazy eye then the vision will remain below normal.