Management of amblyopia in pediatric patients: Current insights

Abstract

Amblyopia is a cause of significant ocular morbidity in pediatric population and may lead to visual impairment in future life. It is caused due to formed visual deprivation or abnormal binocular interactions. Several risk factors in pediatric age group may lead to this disease. Author groups have tried managing different types of amblyopia, like anisometropic amblyopia, strabismic amblyopia and combined mechanism amblyopia, with optical correction, occlusion therapy, penalization, binocular therapy and surgery. We review historical and current management strategies of different types of amblyopia affecting children and outcomes in terms of visual acuity, binocularity and ocular deviation, highlighting evidence from recent studies. Literature searches were performed through Pubmed. Risk factors for amblyopia need to be identified in pediatric population as early in life as possible and managed accordingly, as visual outcomes in amblyopia are best if treated at the earliest. Although, monocular therapies like occlusion or penalization have been shown to be quite beneficial over the years, newer concepts related to binocular vision therapy are still evolving.