Strabismus is a condition where your eyes don't look toward the same object together. One eye moves normally, while the other points in (esotropia or "crossed eyes"), out (exotropia), up (hypertropia) or down (hypotropia). Strabismus can lead to amblyopia. Strabismus is the physical disorder, and amblyopia is the visual consequence.

Strabismus Symptoms and Signs

Newborns often appear to have crossed eyes due to a lack of developed vision, but this disappears as the infant grows. True strabismus does not disappear as the child grows. Visit your eyecare practitioner if you're unsure if your child is demonstrating true strabismus. The earlier the diagnosis and treatment, the better the visual results. Without treatment, your child may develop blurry or double vision.

What Causes Strabismus?

Strabismus may be caused by unequal pulling of muscles on one side of the eye or a paralysis of the ocular muscles.

Strabismus Treatment

Treatment for strabismus is similar to amblyopia treatment:

• Vision therapy including patching or visual exercises
• Glasses with the correct prescription or bifocal or prism correction to aid in proper focusing,
• Eyedrops to help focus
• Surgery.

Surgery will correct the misaligned eyes but cannot resolve amblyopia caused by strabismus. Before scheduling a child for surgery, some eyecare practitioners inject the ocular muscles with Botox (botulinum), which temporarily relaxes the muscles. In some cases, strabismus is permanently corrected in this way.

Amblyopia

Amblyopia is reduced vision in an eye that has not received adequate use during early childhood.

What causes amblyopia?

Amblyopia, also known as "lazy eye," has many causes. Most often it results from either a misalignment of a child's eyes, such as crossed eyes, or a difference in image quality between the two eyes (one eye focusing better than the other.) In both cases, one eye becomes stronger, suppressing the image of the other eye. If this condition persists, the weaker eye may becomes useless. With early diagnosis and treatment however, the sight in the "lazy eye" can be restored.

What treatments are available?

Before treating amblyopia, it may be necessary to first treat the underlying cause.

• Glasses are commonly prescribed to improve focusing or misalignment of the eyes.
• Surgery may be performed on the eye muscles to straighten the eyes if non-surgical means are unsuccessful. Surgery can help in the treatment of amblyopia by allowing the eyes to work together better.
• Eye exercises may be recommended either before or after surgery to correct faulty visual habits associated with strabismus and to teach comfortable use of the eyes.

The correction may be followed by:

• Patching or covering one eye may be required for a period of time ranging from a few weeks to as long as a year. The better-seeing eye is patched, forcing the "lazy" one to work, thereby strengthening its vision.
M
• edication—in the form of eye drops or ointment—may be used to blur the vision of the good eye in order to force the weaker one to work. This is generally a less successful approach.

What happens if amblyopia goes untreated?

If not treated early enough, an amblyopic eye may never develop good vision and may even become functionally blind.