In This Article
Subscribe to Health Updates
Experimental Implants May Be Answer for Lazy Eye
Implantable lenses may work as a last-ditch effort at preventing blindness in children with lazy eyes that were diagnosed too late.
30-Second Summary
The implantable lenses are the same kind that nearsighted adults can have inserted to better their vision, but aren’t yet approved for use in children.
Amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye, is the most common cause of visual impairment in children.
If the condition is caught early, treatment—patching the stronger eye or using special drops so the brain is forced to use the weak eye—can be easy. But if left untreated, the neural connections for vision don’t form and can leave the weak eye useless.
The implantable lens is not a guaranteed cure, but some doctors, including Los Angeles eye surgeon Dr. Paul Dougherty, are hopeful. He recently treated 7-year-old Megan Garvin, who, days after the surgery, could see out of her affected eye, although it’s blurry for now. Months of treatment, in the form of patching, still lie ahead.
But “Without this technology, we couldn’t help her,” Dougherty said. “This would be written off as a blind eye.”
Garvin is one of a small number of American children to try the experimental surgery. If successful, the implantable lens could join the ranks of other revolutionary implants, such as the cochlear implant, which provides sound to the deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.
However, Dr. Punin Shah, a cornea specialist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans cautions, “how this lens is going to work in a child’s eye, we don’t know. We’ve never done studies.”
Amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye, is the most common cause of visual impairment in children.
If the condition is caught early, treatment—patching the stronger eye or using special drops so the brain is forced to use the weak eye—can be easy. But if left untreated, the neural connections for vision don’t form and can leave the weak eye useless.
The implantable lens is not a guaranteed cure, but some doctors, including Los Angeles eye surgeon Dr. Paul Dougherty, are hopeful. He recently treated 7-year-old Megan Garvin, who, days after the surgery, could see out of her affected eye, although it’s blurry for now. Months of treatment, in the form of patching, still lie ahead.
But “Without this technology, we couldn’t help her,” Dougherty said. “This would be written off as a blind eye.”
Garvin is one of a small number of American children to try the experimental surgery. If successful, the implantable lens could join the ranks of other revolutionary implants, such as the cochlear implant, which provides sound to the deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.
However, Dr. Punin Shah, a cornea specialist at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans cautions, “how this lens is going to work in a child’s eye, we don’t know. We’ve never done studies.”
Headline Link: ‘Lens Implant Offers Chance at Beating Lazy Eye’
Although no studies have been conducted yet, it is legal to implant the lenses experimentally in a child, the Associated Press reports: “A handful of medical journal reports show surgeons are starting to try the approach for hard-to-treat amblyopia. In a French study of a dozen children, all had improved vision after the surgery and half recovered normal binocular vision.”
Source: NPR (AP)
Background: Implantable lenses
Implantable lenses were introduced in 2004 as a way to correct vision in adults with severe nearsightedness. “The technique is a breakthrough because it’s the first time that people with severe myopia have a choice other than thick glasses or contact lenses. Laser surgery, or LASIK, which has become increasingly popular in the past decade, doesn’t work for severely nearsighted patients,” Wired reported in September 2004.
Source: Wired
Reference: Amblyopia
The National Eye Institute states that amblyopia is the most common cause of visual impairment in childhood and affects about 2–3 out of every 100 children. The condition is sometimes caused by strabismus, an imbalance in the positioning of the two eyes.
Source: National Eye Institute
Related Topic: Cochlear implants
Like the implantable contact lens works for adults—and possibly children—with severe sight problems, the cochlear implant can provide a sense of sound to those who are profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. The implants are made up of a portion that sits behind the ear and a second part that is surgically placed under the skin. The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders provides details on cochlear implants and how they work.
Source: National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Cochlear implants have come a long way since they were introduced in 1978 and now “the technology has been fine tuned to produce almost normal hearing in many patients,” writes Australian newspaper The Age. A new study has shown that the younger a patient, the better the results of a cochlear implant, including improved speech development.
Source: The Age
Most Recent Beyond The Headlines
© 2012 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
