What are the treatment option available for treating lazy eyes

Technical advancements can help treating lazy eye syndrome

Lazy Eye which is also known as Amblyopia is an eye condition or vision development disorder in which the eye fails to achieve normal visual acuity which is not correctable even by eyeglasses or contact lenses. 

Lazy eye begins during infancy and develops during early childhood. It is an early childhood condition in which child’s eyesight does not develop as well as it should. Mostly it develops in one eye, but in few cases, it can affect both the eyes.

Timely detection and prompt treatment can help prevent reduced vision. But if left untreated, it can cause severe visual disability in the affected eye.

 What are the signs of lazy eye syndrome?

Lazy eye is a problem of infant vision development and the symptoms of the condition can be difficult to discern. If the child or the baby has crossed eye or some other apparent eye misalignment, an eye exam should be done immediately. Second clue is that if the child cries or fusses when one of his eyes is covered. The symptoms include a turn of the eye (inward, outward, downward or upward), missing coordination between the eyes, poor depth perception, squinting or shutting one eye, head tilting, abnormal results of vision screening tests or if the child is affected with double or blurred vision.

Prior to an eye exam, the symptoms may not be persistent or evident and hence a vision examination from early stages of childhood is important. Parents should be more concerned if there is a family history of crossed eyes, childhood cataract or any other eye related ailments.

What are the possible causes?

Lazy eye develops due to the abnormal visual experience in the infancy or in early stages of life that changes the nerve pathways between a thin layer of tissue at the back of the eye and the brain. The suffering eye receives fewer visual signals. So ultimately the ability of the eyes to work together decreases and the brain ignores input from the weaker eye. Anything that blurs the vision or causes the eye to cross may result in lazy eye. The common causes are:

 A. Muscle imbalance or Strabismus - The most common reason of the lazy eye is due to the imbalance in the muscles that position the eyes. The imbalance can make the eyes to cross in or turn out and can also prevent them from tracking together in a coordinated way.

B. Difference in sharpness of vision between the eyes -Also known as Anisometropic amblyopia. There is a significant difference between the prescriptions in each eye. And this often is due to the farsightedness, nearsightedness or an imperfection on the surface of the eye called astigmatism. Glasses or the contact lenses are often used to correct these refractive problems.

C. Deprivation – It is the least common form of amblyopia. One eye develops a cloudy area in the lens which prevents from seeing and makes it weaker. Sometimes both the eyes are defected. It could be due to

a)   Corneal ulcer, scar or other vision ailment,

b)   A congenital cataract, in which a baby is born with clouding of the lens

c)    Droopy eye lid

d)   Glaucoma

e)   Eye injury

Conditions like premature delivery, low birth weight, family history of the condition and other developmental disabilities are common factors that raise the risk of developing lazy eye. The actual root cause of this condition is not related to vision problem but related to the nervous system and the brain.

How it is treated?

There are many eye conditions and diseases that can affect a child’s vision.one of the most common being lazy eye syndrome. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical to maintain the child’s eye health and in case of any suspicion, immediate examination with an ophthalmologist is advised. Timely intervention and early treatment is necessary for effectiveness of the vision. The chances of vision improvement and development ability significantly decrease after the age of 7 years, hence the need for early intervention.

The treatment for lazy eye include –

1. Treating the underlying eye problem – as the stronger eye and the brain compensate for the shortfall, many children remain unaware of the unequal vision. And as the weaker eye worsens, it leads to the development of lazy eye, many times warranting a corrective surgery with lenses.

2. Getting the lazy eye to work – once the underlying cause is treated upon, several other secondary actions can help improve the vision using an eye patch, eye drops or a minor laser surgery.

3. Exercises - Orthoptics recommend various exercises to help in correcting vision. The stronger eye is patched and the weaker eye stimulated with a range of vision-intensive activities, such as coloring, dot-to-dot drawing, word games, or building Lego, depending on the age of the child. Home-based pencil push-ups are done once a strength has returned to the weaker eye. The exercise involves slowly moving a pencil towards the tip of the nose and focusing on the end of the pencil during this movement until it becomes blurry.

4. Vision Therapy software: Vision Therapy is an individualized, supervised, treatment program designed to correct visual-motor and/or perceptual-cognitive deficiencies. Vision Therapy sessions include procedures designed to enhance the brain's ability to control:

• eye alignment,
• eye tracking and eye teaming,
• eye focusing abilities,
• eye movements, and/or
• visual processing.

Visual-motor skills and endurance are developed through the use of specialized computer and optical devices, including therapeutic lenses, prisms, and filters. During the final stages of therapy, the patient's newly acquired visual skills are reinforced and made automatic through repetition and by integration with motor and cognitive skills.