EXCERPT
The human visual system is sensitive to the effects of depriving vision only during a limited period of time in childhood. This critical period is important in the study and treatment of amblyopia. Prior to the Nobel Prize-winning studies of Hubel and Wiesel, the existence of the sensitive period of visual development was not known. Physicians did not realize that monocular deprivation during the sensitive period would result in potentially permanent changes in the visual system causing poor vision. In the 1950s, it was considered hopeless to obtain useful vision following the removal of a monocular cataract in an infant. Investigators were puzzled as to why the removal of a cataract from an adult usually resulted in a good visual result, while the same operation in a young child resulted in such poor vision. Before the early effects of visual deprivation were understood, cataracts in infants were often not removed until the child was older than 6 months of age. Now, with the known importance of the sensitive period of visual development, cataracts are usually removed during the first few weeks of life with significantly improved outcomes.1
AUTHORS
From the Department of Ophthalmology, Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, New York and Eye Consultants of Augusta, Martinez, Georgia.
Originally submitted December 2001.
Accepted for publication January 15, 2002.
The authors have no industry relationships to disclose.
Reprint requests: Scott E. Olitsky, MD, The Children’s Hospital Buffalo, 219 Bryant Street, Buffalo, NY 14221.
