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Pediatric News: Screening for Lazy Eye in Children
Posted by: Florida Eye Microsurgical Institute in 2013-03 Issue, Uncategorized
Wanda Pfeifer uses a special purpose camera to screen children for amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye.”
How many times have you seen a young child with a patch over one eye or wearing glasses with one lens blocked and wondered why? Chances are that child has something called amblyopia (sometimes called “lazy eye”), where one eye is not being used by the brain because it doesn’t see as well.
After looking at more than 10 years of data, researchers now say children as young as a year old can be reliably screened for amblyopia; by using a camera that takes pictures of the eye, symptoms of the condition can be detected long before it becomes apparent, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
The goal is to identify children with this problem as early as possible, says lead study author Dr. Susannah Longmuir, “so we can start treatment before they have a problem or treat it before it gets worse.”
Florida Eye’s Pediatric & Adult Strabismus Specialist Lee Friedman M.D. says that this device “gives an extremely accurate and objective evaluation of the visual potential of prenatal children and picks up defects before they can manifest.”
