How to treat amblyopia in children

  Treatment of amblyopia generally requires correction with lenses, followed by masking and functional training depending on the type of amblyopia.  Amblyopia is a condition in which a child’s visual acuity and visual function are lower than those of children of the same age due to various reasons, such as failure to expose the child to appropriate stimuli during infancy and early childhood, which affects visual development. Amblyopia can be classified as strabismic amblyopia, refractive amblyopia, refractive error amblyopia, and form deprivation amblyopia depending on the cause. Strabismic amblyopia occurs when the strabismic eye is unable to receive appropriate visual stimuli during childhood, resulting in low vision in that eye. Refractive amblyopia is caused by the difference in refractive error between the two eyes. Because the eye with the lower refraction provides a relatively clear image, the brain suppresses the eye with the higher refraction, resulting in amblyopia in that eye. Morphological deprivation amblyopia is caused by a number of causes, such as cataracts, corneal opacities, or ptosis obscuring the pupil, which prevents that eye from being exposed to appropriate stimuli for a long period of time, disrupting visual development and causing amblyopia.  For strabismic amblyopia and refractive amblyopia, the first step is to dilate the pupil and select appropriate corrective lenses, and then cover the eye with good vision, along with training for the amblyopic eye. For form-deprived amblyopia, the cause should be removed as soon as possible; cataracts should be removed if there are congenital or traumatic cataracts; congenital ptosis should be surgically corrected if there is ptosis; corneal transplants can be done if there is corneal opacity. Treatment to improve visual function and vision is also needed after removing the cause, with masking therapy, suppression therapy, visual stimulation therapy based on amblyopia therapies, the red film method, and perceptual training based on web-based remote amblyopia training.  In conclusion, parents should pay attention to their children’s vision and visual function examinations to detect the presence of amblyopia in time, remove the cause as early as possible, and perform amblyopia correction and training so that their children can obtain better vision.