Association between astigmatism and amblyopia.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the association between stigmatism and amblyopia. Methods: It was a hospital based, cross-sectional retrospective study conducted in Nepal Eye Hospital. Medical record of amblyopic children aged 13 years or younger from were reviewed. Children with amblyopic eyes due to simple astigmatism were included. Relation between depth of amblyopia with magnitude and types of astigmatism, orientation of axis was determined. Out of 139 amblyopic eyes of 82 children, 93 were simple myopic astigmatism and remaining 42 were simple hyperopic astigmatism. Results: Mean age of patients was 7.38±2.61 years. Visual acuity improved by at least one line in Snellen chart in 4/5th of eyes after astigmatic correction. Moderate amblyopia was found to be present in 45% eyes while severe amblyopia in 16% of eyes. With the rule astigmatism was found to be present in 88% eyes. Mean astigmatism was 2.47±0.98D and majority of eyes (67.7%) had high astigmatism. Depth of amblyopia was not associated with magnitude of astigmatism (p > 0.05) but number of lines improved with astigmatic correction was correlated with the magnitude of astigmatism (p < 0.001). Risk of amblyopia is more in high myopic astigmatism. Conclusion: Presenting age of amblyopic children was late in Nepal. Depth of amblyopia was not associated with magnitude of astigmatism.