Bilateral hypermetropic amblyopia.

A retrospective analysis was performed on the records of 184 children who had hyperopia of at least 4.0 diopters in each eye to see if bilateral amblyopia was more than just a rare occurrence and to evaluate how well it responded to treatment. Twelve patients were found to have bilateral amblyopia of 20/50 or worse. The mean age at diagnosis was four and a half years (two and a half to six and a half) and mean follow-up was 22 months (five months to seven years, four months). Ten of 12 patients showed improvement of vision to 20/40 or better in both eyes. Treatment consisted of full cycloplegic correction in all cases. Six patients had accommodative esotropia but this did not account for the bilateral nature of the amblyopia. Bilateral amblyopia should be considered in patients with large amounts of hyperopia. It responds well to treatment with standard amblyopia therapy.