Idiopathic amblyopia: a diagnosis of exclusion. A report of 3 patients.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to report the clinical course for 3 young patients diagnosed with idiopathic amblyopia.

Case Reports: The clinical course for 3 young patients with unilateral visual loss initially attributed to idiopathic amblyopia is presented. Extensive evaluations over the years, including optical coherence tomography, were performed in addition to routine clinical testing. In 1 patient, transient anisometropic refractive error during infancy was likely causative for the unilateral visual loss. For the second patient, a subclinical microtropia with varying eccentric fixation was subsequently diagnosed, and for the third patient, a subtle retinal disorder was subsequently diagnosed.

Conclusion: The diagnosis of idiopathic amblyopia is one of exclusion and should only be made after extensive testing to rule out subclinical binocular vision or pathological anomalies.