Treatments of unilateral amblyopia consist of optimizing the
clarity of the visual axis and occlusion of the visual axis of the
unaffected eye to give the brain the opportunity to focus on developing
vision in the amblyopic eye. In ametropic amblyopia (unilateral
or bilateral), spectacle correction alone may be sufficient. If
there is an organic cause of the amblyopia (eg, ptosis, cataract),
the abnormality may first need to be corrected (eg, lid surgery,
cataract removal) before amblyopia treatment can proceed. To the contrary,
in strabismic amblyopia, the amblyopia is usually treated first,
followed by eye muscle surgery to straighten the eyes; the surgical result
will be enhanced if the patient has equal vision in both eyes, thus
allowing the brain to have a greater chance of keeping the eyes
aligned.