What and Why about Amblyopia ?

Amblyopia Overview
Amblyopia is the most common cause of children's vision loss in one eye, with a global incidence of about 1.2 to 2%. A recent study estimated that there will be about 99.2 million people with low vision in 2019, which is expected to reach 175 million in 2030 and 220 million in 2024.

In the previous issues, we interpreted and learned the latest developments in the treatment of amblyopia and the international expert meeting on new ideas for the treatment of amblyopia. Now we have summarized the following very important points.

#1

 The crux of amblyopia lies in the brain, not the eyes

Since the 18th century, the understanding of amblyopia has remained at the level of the eye, and the clinical treatment of amblyopia has mainly focused on covering one eye. In the past 20 years, we have learned a lot about the nature and neural mechanisms of amblyopia. Amblyopia is the temporary inhibition of the brain's visual pathways, and to a certain extent, there is still neuroplasticity. Only by understanding the neurological problems of amblyopia can we better understand and treat amblyopia.

 

Studies have shown that the visual system cannot transmit clear images to the visual cortex during visual development, resulting in abnormal visual development of the cerebral cortex. The eyes and brain of amblyopic patients are different from those of normal people. For example, the amblyopic choroid of patients with anisometropic amblyopia is thicker. The optic nerve, optic radiation and vision-related white matter structures of amblyopic patients are abnormal, and the gray matter of the lateral geniculate nucleus is abnormal. The volume is reduced, and the nerve activity is reduced.

#2

Amblyopia treatment

Traditional Therapy & New Ideas

Traditional masking treatment has been clinically used for more than 300 years, but this treatment method has increased the imbalance of the eyes, and the outcome of the treatment is also quite different. Studies have shown that masking is only effective for less than 50% of patients, and masking therapy alone prevents some patients from improving their vision after reaching a certain level, and the rate of recurrence of amblyopia is also higher in masked patients.

Amblyopia is the result of binocular competitive inhibition, the root cause is binocular competition, manifested as monocular vision dysplasia. Therefore, the key to treating amblyopia is to break the competitive inhibition of binocular and promote the harmonious development of binocular vision.