Abstract
This study reports the presentation of 961 children who underwent amblyopia treatment at seven orthoptic centres in the United Kingdom. We confirmed previous authors' findings of a small but significant increased incidence of left-sided compared with right-sided amblyopia overall. For pure anisometropic amblyopia this difference was very marked and a possible pathophysiological mechanism is proposed. The mean age of presentation for anismetropic, strabismic and mixed amblyopia was 5.6, 3.3 and 4.4 years, respectively. Neither sex nor race affected the age of presentation. Despite their older age, children with pure anisometropic amblyopia had the best initial visual acuity, with 25% of anisometropes having an initial visual acuity of less than 6/18 compared with 39% of strabismics and 50% of mixed amblyopes. The ages and initial acuities of the strabismic patients in this series are at least as favourable as those of patients reported from outside the UK. There were variations in the age and proportion of patients presenting with anisometropic amplyopia at the different centres, suggesting a failure in the referral of anisometropic amblyopia of importance in interpreting epidemiological studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Hiscox F, Strong N, Thompson JR, Minshull C, Woodruff G . Occlusion for amblyopia: a comprehensive survey of outcome. Eye 1992;6:300–4.
Neumann E, Freidman Z, Abel-Peleg B . Prevention of strabismic amblyopia of early onset with special reference to the optimal age for screening. J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 1987;24:106–10.
Flynn JT, Cassady JC . Current trends in amblyopia therapy. Ophthalmology 1978;85:428–50.
Scott WE, Dickey CF . Stability of visual acuity in amblyopic patients after visual maturity. Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 1988;226:154–7.
Woodruff G, Hiscox F, Thompson JR, Smith LK . Factors affecting the outcome of children treated for amblyopia. Eye 1994;8:627–31.
Nicoll A, Bassett K, Ulijaszek SJ . What's in a name? Accuracy of using surnames and forenames in ascribing Asian ethnic identity in English populations. J Epidemiol Community Health 1986;40:364–8.
SAS Institute Inc. SAS user's guide: statistics, version 5. Cary, NC: SAS Institute, 1985.
Massie H . Fixing eye occlusion: survey of approximately 1000 case histories of patients who received occlusion of the fixing eye. Trans Ophthalmol Soc Australia 1965;24:39–46.
Cole RBW . The problem of unilateral amblyopia: a preliminary study of 10 000 national health patients. BMJ 1959;1:202–6.
Burian HM . Handedness, eyedness and refractive error in relation to strabismic amblyopia. Wiss Z Univ Leipzig Math Naturwiss R 1969;18:236.
Lippmann O . Die Entartungzeichen und die Überwertigkeit einer Körperhälfte in ihrer Bedeutung für das Sehen. Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd 1934;92:370.
Hebben N, Benjamin D, Milberg WP . The relationship among handedness, sighting dominance and acuity dominance in elementary school children. Cortex 1981;17:441–6.
Fabian G . Augenarzliche Reihenuntersuchung von 1200 Kindern im 2 Lebensjahr. Acta Ophthalmol (Copenh) 1966;44:473–9.
Raviola E, Wiesel T . The mechanism of lid-suture myopia. Acta Ophthalmol (Copenh) 1988;185:91–2.
Rabin J, Van Sluyters RC, Malach R . Emmetropization: a vision-dependent phenomenon. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1981;20:561–4.
Shaw DE, Fielder AR, Minshull C, Rosenthal AR . Amblyopia: factors influencing age of presentation. Lancet 1988;2:207–9.
Lithander J, Sjörstrand J . Anisometropic and strabismic amblyopia in the age group 2 years and above: a prospective study of the results of treatment. Br J Ophthalmol 1991;75:111–6.
Fulton AB, Mayer DL . Esotropic children with amblyopia: effects of patching on acuity. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 1988;226:309–12.
Helveston EM . The incidence of amblyopia ex anopsia in young adult males in Minnesota in 1962-63. Am J Ophthalmol 1965;60:75–7.
Downing AH . Ocular defects in sixty thousand selectees. Arch Ophthalmol 1945;33:137–43.
Ciuffreda KJ, Levi DM, Selenow A . Amblyopia: basic and clinical aspects. New York: Butterworth Heinemann, 1990: 21–3.
Hardman Lea SJ, Haworth SM . An assessment of the present study for visual screening of school children in Nottingham. Br Orthopt J 1989;46:20–5.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Woodruff, G., Hiscox, F., Thompson, J. et al. The presentation of children with amblyopia. Eye 8, 623–626 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1994.156
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1994.156