Objective To investigate the recovery of accommodative function in former amblyopes with monocular hyperopic anisometropia who had undergone successful orthoptic therapy.Methods In this cross-sectional study, 55 children with monocular hyperopic anisometropia who were former amblyopes and 50 emmetropes were investigated. A SRW-5500 autorefractor was used to measure accommodative response while the children viewed an E target placed at 50, 33 and 20 cm.Accommodative lags were calculated with formula accommodative demand minus accommodative refraction. Data were analyzed with an independent samples t test, a paired t test and a linear correlation analysis. Results At the 20, 33, 50 cm distance, the accommodative lags of the dominant eyes of the normal group were (0.26±0.31), (0.12±0.02) and (0.10±0.01)D, respectively, while the accommodative lags of the non-dominant eyes were (0.27±0.30), (0.17±0.14), and (0.12±0.01)D, respectively. The accommodative lags of the dominant eyes of the monocular former amblyopes at the 3 distances were (0.40±0.14), (0.29±0.09) and (0.17±0.06)D, respectively, and the accommodative lags of the non-dominant eyes were (1.66±0.47), (1.38±0.34) and (1.16±0.34)D, respectively. There was no significant difference in the accommodative lags of the dominant eyes between the former amblyopic and emmetropic groups at all reading distances. The accommodative lags of the non-dominant eyes in the former amblyopes were greater than those of the fellow eyes at the 3 distances. These overall differences were significant in the amblyopic subjects (t=18.731, 22.764, 21.020, P＜0.01). The standard deviations of accommodative responses for the former amblyopes with monocular hyperopic anisometropia were (0.09±0.04), (0.09±0.02), (0.09±0.02)D, respectively at the 3 distances, while those for the dominant eyes of the former amblyopes were (0.04±0.01), (0.04±0.03), (0.04±0.00)D,respectively. The standard deviations of the former amblyopic eyes were greater than those of the fellow eyes at the corresponding rea