Frequency and Causes of Uniocular Amblyopia in Children

Aim: To determine the frequency and causes of uniocular amblyopia in children age 6-14 years visiting a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Cross-sectional hospital based study. Duration and Settings of the study: The study was conducted from 7October to 7November 2019 in the Department of Ophthalmology at Hayatabad Medical Complex , Peshawar. Methods: All children of age 6-14 y ears of bot h genders were included in the study. Visual acuity (VA) of these children was measured using Snellen visual acuity chart. Objective refraction was done using autorefractometer. After subjective refraction, an y two lines difference in VA of both e yes, were considered as uniocular amblyopia. Amblyopia was classified as mild if visual acuity is 6/ 9 t o 6/ 12, moderate amblyopia if VA is worse than 6/12 to 6/36, and severe amblyopia if VA is worse than 6/36. Analysis of data was done by using SPSS version 20. Results: Out of total 360 children examined, 39 had uniocular amblyopic . Out of these 39 children, 23 (58.97%) were male and 16 (40.03%) were female. Among 39 uniocular amblyopic children, strabismic amblyopia was found in 15 (38.4 6%) children and 10 ( 25.46%) children had an isometropic amblyopia. Fourteen 14 (35.89%) children had combined amblyopia (having strabismus and an isometropia both). Among the total uniocular amblyopic children, 21 (53.85%) were esotropes, 8 (20.51%) were exotropes and 10 (25.64 %) had straight eyes. Conclusions: This study showed that uniocular amblyopia is more common in male. The most common cause of uniocular amblyopia is strabismic amblyopia.