amblyopiagenic

Amblyopiagenic, spelled amblyogenic or amblyopiogenic in the textbooks, describes a condition that can cause amblyopia. Amblyopia is diagnosed when reduced acuity accompanies such a factor, most often strabismus, anisometropia or cataract, and examination finds no other cause of the loss.¹

A unilateral cataract or surgical lid closure works through two mechanisms at once. The deprived eye receives a degraded image, and that image also competes with the focused image from the fellow eye.² If both eyes are blurred equally, as with bilateral cataracts of equal density or uncorrected high hyperopia or astigmatism, no competition arises and pattern vision deprivation is the only amblyopiogenic factor.²

Unilateral complete ptosis can cause deprivation amblyopia, but bilateral ptosis does not, because the child keeps normal visual activity by elevating the chin.² The clinician looks for strabismus, anisometropia and high ametropia in every suspected amblyopia, because the lack of an amblyogenic factor greatly increases the odds of pathology.³