BMJ  2003;327:1242-1243 (29 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7426.1242

Editorial

Should we be screening for and treating amblyopia?

Evidence shows some benefit

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 1981 the award of the Nobel prize for medicine for the discovery of the pathophysiology of amblyopia marked a turning point in the management of children with this condition.1 Recognition that early visual experience is essential for the development of the visual brain has fundamentally changed the way we manage disorders that interfere with image formation in the eye during early life. For example, very early screening, detection, and intervention for sight threatening congenital cataract2 has practically eliminated this condition as a cause of long term visual impairment in the developed world.

People looking after children with amblyopia often see improvement of vision after patching of the good eye and no improvement (or even deterioration) in children whose patching is not carried out as recommended,3 but the lack of controlled trials led to the recommendation that a randomised controlled trial should be carried out in which the control group . . . [Full text of this article]

Gordon N Dutton, consultant ophthalmologist

(Sheena.MacKay@NorthGlasgow.scot.nhs.uk)

Marie Cleary, senior orthoptist

Tennent Institute of Ophthalmology, Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow G12 0YN


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

The NHS experiment
Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2003 327: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Randomised controlled trial of treatment of unilateral visual impairment detected at preschool vision screening
M P Clarke, C M Wright, S Hrisos, J D Anderson, J Henderson, and S R Richardson
BMJ 2003 327: 1251. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Morad, Y., Bakshi, E., Levin, A., Binyamini, O. G., Zadok, D., Avni, I., Dayan, Y. B. (2007). Screening and Treating Amblyopia: Are We Making a Difference?. IOVS 48: 2084-2088 [Abstract] [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ