Strabismus

Strabismus or squint eye is a condition of misalignment of the eye. One eye might focus on an object, while the other eye might seems to roll to another position.  There are many different types of strabismus and most commonly described by the direction of the eye misalignment. Several common types of strabismus are esotropia (“crossed-eye”), exotropia (most common type of strabismus in population), hypotropia, and hypertropia.

Strabismus can be happened on children or adult, while most of the cases happened during childhood period. Strabismus often occurs in perfectly healthy children, however several disorder that effect the brain such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, hydrocephalus, children with history of seizure are more likely to develop strabismus. Meanwhile in adults stroke is the leading cause of strabismus followed by neurological problem, head trauma and graves disease.

This misalignment condition can cause lazy eye/ amblyopia in children. When eyes are focused in different directions, the brain will receive 2 different of visual images. With this condition, the brain may ignore the image from the misaligned eye to prevent double vision, and resulting in poor visual development of the eye. Other condition such as loss of stereoscopic/ depth perception, eye muscle strain and abnormal head posture may occur as a late complications of strabismus.

The definitive cause of strabismus is remained unknown. Most cases of strabismus are the result of an abnormality of poorly understood neuromuscular (including brain) control of the eye movement. Sometimes, but less commonly, a problem with the actual eye muscle causes strabismus.

Symptoms of strabismus:

• Crossed eye
• Eyes are not align in the same direction
• Uncoordinated eye movement
• Loss of vision or depth perception
• Tilted head during various activities

Double vision in adult (NOTE that children may never have double vision because amblyopia can develop in short period of time)

The aim of strabismus treatment is to improve eye alignment which allows the eye to work together (binocular single vision). Treatment may involve eye glasses prescription, eye muscle exercises, prims lens and or eye muscle surgery as a definitive procedure.

Several problems that may associate with strabismus (for example amblyopia, ptosis and cataract) are better treated prior to eye muscle surgery.

If you have any of this condition, please feel free to consult your problem to our Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Consultant at Children Eye and Squint Clinic (CES Clinic) at JEC. Our team will be more than happy to help you.