What is lazy eye?

Lazy eye, which is also called ablmopiya, is a kind of vision problem that has poor or indistinct vision in one eye or in both eyes. Sometimes people may also call strabismus especially exotropi “lazy eye” by mistake. It is estimated that about 1 – 5% of the population is affected by lasy eye, mostly children. The eye disease’s name “Lazy eye” is inaccurate, because it is not caused by the laziness of the eye or the patient with the condition. Lazy eye isamblyopia, isamblyopia,caused by no transmission or poor transmission of the visual image to the brain. In other words, it is a problem in the visual system of brain but not an organic problem in the eye. Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment. The maximum critical period of detecting lazy eye is from birth to two years old. Since one of the eyes is usually normal, many people with lazy eye can not aware they have the eye problem until examined at older ages.

Treatment of lazy eye consists of correcting the optical deficit and encouraging use of the poor eye, usually by patching the good eye. Patient should also be wary of over-patching the good eye when treating for amblyopia, avoiding reverse amblyopia in the other eye. Another simple treatment carried out in University of Southern California involved only the use of basic computer software and vision training exercises showed that 28 of 30 patients with lazy eye can develop 20/20 vision.