Lazy Eye: Is Patching the Solution?

Colorful and expressive, the eyes are central to the way people interact with each other, as well as take in their surroundings. Amblyopia more commonly known as "lazy eye" -- all the more obvious, but the physical manifestation of the most common cause of vision problems among children the world over is actually a brain disorder. This usually means that the child can see less clearly out of one eye and relies more on the "good" eye.
When the weak eye sends poorly focused images to the brain, the brain learns to depend on the stronger eye for its visual information. If this situation is not corrected, and is left untreated, vision loss may range from mild to severe. The brain eventually chooses to accept images from the stronger eye alone and ignores images from the weak one. In other words, the weak eye doesn’t learn to see. Lazy eye is the most common cause of single-eye vision impairment in young and middle-aged adults.
Lazy eye usually occurs in only one eye. When it first occurs, parents and children often do not notice the condition. However, not getting your child’s eyes examined while he or she is an infant and toddler can contribute to further development of the problem. The American Optometric Association recommends that children have eye exams when they are 6 months and 3 years old
The pirate look is a time-honored way to fix children’s “lazy eye”: the patch over the good eye forces the weak one to work, thereby preventing its deterioration. The neural cells corresponding to both eyes then learn to fire in synchrony so that the brain wires itself for the stereo vision required for depth perception. Left untreated past a critical age, lazy eye, or Amblyopia, can result in permanently impaired vision. New studies are now showing that this condition, which affects up to 5 percent of the population, could be repaired even past the critical phase.
Signs and symptoms of lazy eye include a tendency to bump into objects on one side, an eye that wanders inward or outward, eyes that appear not to work together, poor depth perception, double vision and squinting.
Usually doctors can correct lazy eye with eye patches which are used to stimulate the weaker eye; your child may wear an eye patch over the stronger eye. Most children older than age 4 will benefit from wearing the patch three to six hours a day. This helps the part of the brain that manages vision to develop more completely,
Early treatment for Amblyopia is very important. When the good eye is covered with a patch, the child can generally develop the full potential of the lazy eye. But children hate eye patches. They may develop great creativity in peeking around the patch unless the parent goes to great lengths to keep the patch on.

O. Dr. Hussein H. Zamel
Optometry specialist
International Medical Center, Jeddah