The history of the treatment of amblyopia (Review)

The Greek word amblyopia means dimness or dullness of vision ( ambly αμβλυσ = dull and ops ωψ = vision) and the condition has been defined in a variety of ways in the literature. Amblyopia is a decrease in visual acuity, usually in one eye. It persists after the correction of the refractive error (i.e., acuity is not improved by glasses) or removal of any pathological obstacle to vision (i.e. cataract) and no organic cause can normally be found. 1 , 2 The general estimate of the prevalence of amblyopia hovers around 3.5%. The reported prevalence in the literature varies considerably, however (0.5–5.3%), due to differences in study design, population and the examination methods used. 2 − 9 In addition, the criteria used to diagnose amblyopia differ at the start of treatment, the end of the treatment and later in life

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