Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)

This condition has several symptoms, such as reduced vision in one eye (sometimes in both eyes), difficulty focusing and perceiving details. A patient with amblyopia has a harder time judging distances due to altered spatial perception. A common manifestation is strabismus (crossed eyes). The eyes tend to fatigue quickly, and the patient may experience headaches after prolonged focusing. In children, one might notice a preference for one eye, often by turning the head to one side to see better.

Put simply, amblyopia develops when the brain fails to learn how to properly use the eyes, always during early childhood. It is a disorder in how the brain interprets images on the retina when strabismus is present, or when there’s a significant difference in refractive power (diopters) between the two eyes. In such cases, the brain receives two conflicting images and begins to “turn off” one of them. This results in reduced depth perception, absence of 3D vision, and poor contrast or detail recognition.

The most common causes of amblyopia include: strabismus – crossed eyes, where the brain suppresses the image from one eye to avoid double vision. Anisometropia, the aforementioned significant difference in diopters between the two eyes, is another frequent cause of amblyopia. In this case, one eye sees clearly while the other sees blurred.

Treatment differs between children and adults and is significantly more successful in children. Early diagnosis is key. The child’s brain—especially before the age of six—is much more flexible and capable of correction than that of an adult. Therefore, treatment in children can lead to complete resolution, whereas in adults with a stabilized visual system, the success rate is very low.

A highly effective method in amblyopia treatment is eye exercises known as orthoptics. These are specialized exercises that improve eye coordination, primarily used with children, and are most successful in preschool-aged kids. It’s a type of rehabilitation aimed at improving visual functions and balancing both eyes. Pleoptic exercises focus on stimulating the weaker eye, for example by total occlusion—completely covering the dominant eye to force the lazy one to work harder.

In general, exercises help improve visual perception, fixation, and cooperation between both eyes.

Amblyopia is most often treated by:

• Occlusion therapy: Covering the healthy eye to force the weaker eye to focus and function.

• Corrective lenses: Glasses or contact lenses to address refractive errors.

• Atropine drops: Applied to the healthy eye to blur vision and stimulate the lazy eye.

 Today, treatment is available even for children older than six using 3D virtual reality. Through games and exercises with 3D glasses, children train the lazy eye by displaying related images so that the healthy eye sees less sharply and with lower brightness, while the amblyopic eye sees a clear, sharp image. This merges the images into the desired visual perception.