Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:to monitor refractive and functional changes in children that underwent to surgery to correct various types of squint. Methods:16 children between 6 and 16 years of age( mean 9.1), affected by various and combined types of squint ( 13 esotropia, 3 exotropia, 3 ipertropia, 1 ipotropia, 5 anomalous head posturing) were examined immediately before surgery, 15 days and 3 months after intervention. Mean best corrected visual acuity was 8/10 in both eyes (0.4 and 0.3 log mar) in basal examination. The children underwent to autorefraction, best corrected ETDRS visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, transient and steady–state visual evoked potentials (VEPs) done at different spatial frequencies. Statistical analysis (mean and 95% confidence interval) was made for all the repeated measures.Results:ETDRS visual acuity and VEPs weren't modified significantly after surgery. We found an increase in contrast sensitivity function in 6 cycles per degree column statistically significant between the first and the third control in the left eye ( on the average the worst before surgery). Autorefraction showed also a little but significant decrease (from 1.6 to 0.3) in the spherical component in the right eye between the first and the third control. Astigmatism showed an increase, not significant, at the 15 days control and a reduction respect to the second control at the 3 months examination. Conclusions:strabismus surgery does not modify visual acuity and VEPs visual acuity in the first 3 months after intervention. It could be stressed that refractive correction was not changed in this period. The contrast sensitivity only shows a little increase in the 6 cycles per degree analysis. Keeping this as the finest and sensitive examination, though subjective and though administered in children, this result could explain the better behavioural visual condition in operated infants. Our aim is to extend the follow–up to 1 year to assess the subjective and objective results.
Keywords: strabismus: treatment • neuropeptides • visual acuity