PREDICTABILITY OF AMBLYOPIA IN AMETROPIC CHILDREN - A REVIEW OF 96 CASES

Purpose The aim of this cross-sectional retrospective study was to ana lyze the predictability of amblyopia in children with myopic and hyper opic unilateral and bilateral ametropia. Materials and methods One hun dred and sixty two eyes of 96 children, (mean age: 8.6 years), were in cluded in this work Mean visual acuities and significant refractive er rors were estimated for all the cases. The frequency of amblyopia and strabismus was studied in cases without amblyopia and in cases with me dium and high grade amblyopia. Results Mean visual acuities were signi ficantly higher in cases of bilateral myopia (p < 0.001) and hyperopia (p < 0.05) compared with unilateral ametropia. The frequency of myopi c eyes (p < 0.01) eyes with high grade of myopia (p < 0.002) and aniso myopic eyes (p < 0.001) was significantly higher in cases of high ambl yopia compared with cases without amblyopia. Strabismus (p < 0.05) wer e also significantly more frequent in cases of high amblyopia as well as in cases of myopic eyes (p ( 0.01). Moreover, in the group of high amblyopia, 6 cases (6/7) had developed an intolerance for contact lens es. Conclusions The risk of developing high grade amblyopia appeared s ignificantly associated with unilateral medium and high level myopia. Strabismus and difficulties with good correction of anisometropia by c ontact lenses or spectacle appeared to be predisposing factors. This o bservation would suggest the indication of refractive surgery might be useful in these particular cases. To conclude, this study emphasizes the importance of early treatment of ametropia to reduce the incidence of amblyopia in children.