Lazy Eye: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
Written by:Amblyopia, commonly called lazy or lazy eye, is an eye disorder that is caused when one eye has worse vision than the other, transiently (which can improve) or permanent. The lazy eye has different degrees depending on visual acuity in the affected eye, which is rated on a scale from 0 to 10 or as a percentage.
Causes of lazy eye
Amblyopia affects both children and adults, although the origins are totally different. In the case of children, the main causes are:
• Strabismus: deviation from the line of sight of one eye
• Anisometropia: big difference between diopters in one eye and the other
• Congenital diseases: the retina or cornea, congenital or less common cataracts, ptosis (drooping eyelid that covers the pupil)
• Brain diseases, tumors and congenital lesions of the optic pathway between the eyes and the brain
In the case of adults, the most common causes are:
• direct trauma with loss of transparency of the ocular media
• Disease or retinal degenerations
• Cerebrovascular Accident
• tumors or neurological disease (less common)
Symptoms of lazy eye
The main symptom of amblyopia is the loss of visual acuity in the affected eye, adults noticed perfectly and quickly, while children have more difficulty perceiving the problem as the vision of the two eyes together can be good.
Lazy eye treatment
If the cause of lazy eye is strabismus, anisometropia, among others, it is recommended to use a specialist in ophthalmology to undergo treatment, which can be medical or surgical.
Still, the best remedy is prevention through early studies of children or with the appropriate treatment for each adult in order to avoid the causes, by controlling cardiovascular risk factors and prevention of occupational hazards and accidents in general .
Furthermore, the development of amblyopia depends on two factors:
• Prematurity and accuracy of diagnosis
• Early treatment for each case
