Abstract
Purpose:
To determine pre- and post-operative binocular status for adult strabismus patients.
Methods:
A retrospective chart review was performed of consecutive adult strabismus patients who underwent surgical correction by one surgeon between June 1990 and September 2009. Inclusion criteria included a minimum of a two months postoperative visit where stereo acuity was measured by the Titmus stereo test. Patients were excluded if they did not return for a follow up visit after the two months timeframe or the charts contained insufficient data regarding binocular function. Data analyzed included: age at time of surgery; previous strabismus surgery; onset of strabismus based on history; current strabismus diagnosis; surgical procedure; best corrected visual acuity; stereo acuity; and ocular alignment at distance and near. Information was recorded preoperatively, two months after surgery, and at a final visit.
Results:
179 patients underwent surgery for strabismus. Of these, 119 patients, aged 16 to 80 years, were included. Overall, 59 of the 119 patients had improved post-operative binocular function (49.6%), 59 remained the same (49.6%), and 1 decreased (0.8%). If you exclude those patients with 40 seconds of stereo acuity preoperatively, whose stereopsis, by definition, could not improve further (N=20), and look only at the 99 surgical patients who could improve, then 59.6% improved. 17.6% of the 119 patients went from no recordable stereo to some stereo. All patients in the group who had improved stereopsis already had binocular vision as adults, or were predisposed to develop stereopsis during childhood. 29 patients who did not improve had a history of infantile strabismus.
Conclusions:
The benefits of surgical correction of strabismus in adults include improvement in binocular function as seen in 59.6% of the patients in this study. 17.6% of patients went from no recordable stereopsis to some stereopsis.