What are the common causes of amblyopia?

  The eye is the window to the soul and an important sense organ for human survival, and about 90% of the information people get from the outside world comes from the eye. However, at birth, the visual system, like other systems in the body, is not yet well developed, and vision is very poor, and newborns only respond to bright light stimuli. If the visual pathway from the eye to the visual cortex of the brain is affected by some adverse factors during this period, amblyopia may occur.  The common causes of amblyopia are: 1. Refractive error Some children are born with high hyperopia, astigmatism or myopia in both eyes, and if they do not wear appropriate glasses in time, the external objects they see are always blurred, so that the neural pathway from the eyes to the visual center of the cerebral cortex is poorly developed, resulting in amblyopia. Some attentive parents may find that their children like to read books very close to each other, watch TV and often squint to see things, the child’s response to the surrounding environment is worse than other children of the same age.  2, refractive error Some children have refractive error, but a low degree, a high degree, this is refractive error. These children refractive error is clear in one eye, while the high degree of the eye to see things is blurred, the two eyes at the same time to see objects in the brain due to the formation of the visual cortex of the object image clarity is inconsistent, the brain can not fuse them into one, so the visual center actively suppressed the blurred image, and over time the eye with a deep degree of amblyopia become amblyopic. Children with refractive amblyopia have one eye that sees things clearly, so it is usually difficult for parents to detect any abnormality, and it is often discovered only when they go to school or have their vision checked when they are older.  3, monocular strabismus There are many types of strabismus. Generally speaking, children with alternating strabismus in both eyes do not develop amblyopia, but they cannot develop advanced binocular vision: stereo vision, while children with frequent strabismus in one eye often have their brains actively inhibit the nerve impulses transmitted by the strabismic eye in order to overcome diplopia and confusion after strabismus, thus affecting the visual development of the strabismic eye and forming amblyopia.  Formal deprivation refers to the visual development of the eye being affected due to some reasons such as congenital ptosis, congenital cataract or corneal leukomalacia, which affects the photopic and formative stimuli entering the eye, so that the eye cannot produce normal visual impulses, and no normal visual impulses are transmitted to the visual center of the brain, thus causing amblyopia.  The prevalence of amblyopia in China is currently between 2-4%. The danger of amblyopia is that the patient not only has low vision, but also does not have perfect binocular vision and precise stereo vision. Amblyopia is a developmental disorder, and the younger the age, the stronger the plasticity in the stage of visual development. Therefore, the earlier we intervene and treat patients with strabismus and amblyopia, the better the treatment effect will be, while there is no hope for adults to be cured after the developmental period is terminated. Therefore standardized eye examinations for infants, toddlers and children are very important and necessary. Our ophthalmologists, especially pediatric ophthalmologists, have been actively trying to do a lot of work.