The success rate for treatment at 4-year-olds drops from 95% to 23% at 8-year-olds… Requires periodic eye examinations
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▲A child wearing a masking patch to treat amblyopia. (Photo provided by Kim Eye Hospital)
Amblyopia, one of the most common eye diseases in children and adolescents, has a lower treatment success rate with age. It is very important to detect and treat it before the age of 7, when vision development is mostly complete.
Amblyopia is a condition in which there is no particular abnormality, but when an eye test is performed, the visual acuity of both eyes differs by more than two lines on the eye chart, and the visual acuity is not good even when wearing glasses. It is a common eye disease that occurs in about 2 out of 100 people worldwide, and its prevalence is expected to steadily increase.
Unlike strabismus, amblyopia has no outward symptoms and is therefore difficult to detect. Factors causing amblyopia are divided into ophthalmic and non-ophthalmic factors. Ophthalmic factors include strabismus, refractive error, and anisometropia, and non-ophthalmic factors include premature birth, newborn health index (APGAR, Apgar) score, smoking during pregnancy, and treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit.
A person’s vision is not perfected at birth, but develops slowly, with most development complete by the age of 7 or 8. Since there are no specific symptoms, it can be difficult to detect without regular eye exams. In particular, if there is amblyopia in both eyes, there is a high possibility that children will not be able to express it or will not be aware of the discomfort because they are accustomed to situations in which they cannot see well from a young age.
The success rate of amblyopia treatment is largely related to the age at which treatment begins. According to the Korean Academy of Ophthalmology, if amblyopia is discovered and treated at age 4, the treatment success rate is as high as 95%, but it drops to 23% at age 8. Therefore, the younger you start treatment, the higher the success rate, so it is best to receive treatment before the age of 7 at the latest. If treatment is missed in time, permanent vision impairment may remain.
Even if you have amblyopia, you may expect that your vision will improve if you undergo vision correction surgery such as LASIK as an adult, but this is not true. Even if vision correction surgery is performed after becoming an adult, vision does not improve beyond the corrected vision achieved when wearing glasses before surgery.
Da-ye Choi, a specialist at the Strabismus & Pediatric Ophthalmology Center at Kim Eye Hospital, said, “Amblyopia is a very important eye disease in infants and toddlers as it is a condition in which the height of the eyesight is not growing,” adding, “If the treatment period is missed, the treatment success rate decreases and permanent vision impairment can be left behind. “It is recommended that children visit an ophthalmologist for a check-up before the age of 7,” he said.
2024-03-08 20:00:00
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