Wavikar Eye Institute

Treatment for Amblyopia (lazy eye)

Hi. My name is Dr. Chandrashekhar Kale. I'm a pediatric Ophthalmologist and I'll be talking about Amblyopia and Childhood Blindness.

So when we say about pediatric ophthalmology the most common thing that comes to our mind is Bariatric Cataract and squint but if we look at the most common cause of preventable blindness in children then it's definitely Amblyopia or what we call as a lazy eye. Now Amblyopia is a Neurosensory disorder, that means your eye and brain both the things are involved. It's a condition in which vision in one of the eyes is less because of any focusing problems in your eye which occurred in your early childhood period. Now, this can be due to ocular misalignment which is called as squint or hindrance to light which enters the eye because of ptosis or cataract or can be simple refractive errors, especially the higher refractive errors. Usually Amblyopia is more commonly seen in one eye and hence is very difficult to detect because when the child sees, he sees with both the eyes open so if one eye has got a poor vision and another eye is good, the child will not be able to identify that he is not able to see with one eye unless he closes one of the eyes. So here comes the importance of early screening of the eyes.

As far as the treatment of Amblyopia is concerned, it is mostly treating the pre-depositing factors like squint or cataract where it's a surgical intervention or you can do a simple refractive error check up and glasses prescription. One of the most important factors for Amblyopia management is the exercises for lazy eye. The most common is the patching exercises where in you close the good eye and the child is forced to see from the poor eye. The principle behind this is once the child sees from the poor eye for a period of time your brain will get accustomed to see through the poor eye and gradually over a period of time visual improvement occurs in the eye. The only thing here is that the exercises, as well as the treatment, has to start before 8yrs of an age where in you can expect a complete recovery of the vision. Here, at our institute, we have a special device or software called the Vision Therapy software which is aimed for the improvement of vision in your Amblyopic eye.

This is basically a computer generated device where in some exercises are given via computers. Now since this is given by computer and designed in form of some small games the compliance in a child is much better as compared to the regular patching exercises. So, definitely, the visual improvement is much faster with this new computer generated exercises. So in a nutshell what I would like to say is that Amblyopia is definitely preventable, especially if you diagnose it at an early stage. We need more awareness regarding this condition, in the parents, in the public, also in the pediatrician so that the child gets his first eye check up as early as possible, preferably by three yrs of age. This is what I wanted to say about Amblyopia and treatment of lazy eye in a nut shell.

For further details, you can contact us at lybrate.com. Thank You.

Hi, I’m Dr Hrishikesh Tadwalkar, and I’m the consultant of oculoplastic surgery or also known as eye plastic. In this speciality, I look after the diseases of an eyelid, the lachrymal system or the tear drainage system, and orbital diseases, i.e, the diseases pertaining to the muscles and other soft tissues which are behind the eye and also the bones which surround the eye.

Today I would like to speak about a very important condition that we handle in this department, and that is the cosmetic rehabilitation of disfigured eyes. Eyes get disfigured or they get damaged, they lose vision due to many conditions. Be it some tumours inside the eye for which the eyes have to be removed, or more commonly during injuries like road traffic accidents or other injuries like assault or chemical injuries like acid or alkali burns.

When we look at a person while interacting, we look at the eye, and therefore it is very important to have a normal appearance in both eyes. If unfortunately, vision cannot be restored in an eye, still, the cosmetic appearance need to be restored to give the patient both psychological confidence, as well as an ability to move about in society with confidence. In this particular condition, we try to customize the treatment, because every person comes with different diseases. We first evaluate it thoroughly and then discuss with the patients about the various treatment options that are available in terms of surgery. The types of implants that are choices available that we can put, and lastly, what kind of surgery will we be undergoing. Once this is decided, the patient undergoes the surgery.

There are different types of surgery like Evisceration, Exenteration, Enucleation, etc. But surgery is only half the part of this treatment. After the surgery, the post-operation period, the patient is carefully monitored for wound healing. And once the wound is healed, which takes about six to eight weeks.

The second part, or even more important part, is fitting with an artificial prosthesis. At our Institute, we have a complete full-fledged custom made artificial eye fitting prosthetic center, where step wise the socket is assessed for the size and various models are made of the artificial eye which are then fitted to the patient and then hand painted to match the other eye. Once this artificial eye is fabricated, the patient is taught in a detailed manner how to wear it, how to take care of it, how to clean it, and then the patient is given instructions as to what medicines are to be put. In this way, we make sure that the patients are satisfied with the appearance. This and many more conditions are treated in such detailed manner at our Institute.

If you have any questions or if you have any queries, or if you have a patient who needs to consult, then please get in touch with me through Lybrate.com. Thank you.