The strabismus is a deviation or abnormal alignment of one eye in relation with the other eye.
At what age can be the strabismus detected?
The congenital strabismus is detected with an appropriate examination at the age of 4 months old. At this age, the most common deviation is the congenital cross-eye.
There are some syndromes less frequent such as Duane Syndrome or Moebius that can also be detected at early ages. Other kind of strabismus is the late appearance of the cross-eye with accommodative factor that appears after 3 years old or the intermittent exotropia
Does all strabismus require surgery?
The surgery is not needed in all the cases. In some types of strabismus is enough the usage of eyeglasses, exercises and usage of pads, Botox, etc. The surgery will be necessary depending on the type of strabismus, magnitude and deviation frequency. It is important to diagnose the patient’s situation and the deviation level before to determine a surgery procedure, because if it is done a surgery just for fixing the aligment problem, it may influence the patient’s sight (double vision in some cases).
Depending on the age, in children is common to use general anesthetic for avoiding setback with the children own normal movements. The adults may take a surgery with local anesthetic and sedation, if there is a complete cooperation from the patient. The advantage of the surgery is ambulatory and in some cases requires a patch on the operated eye.
We have a specialist to treat this kind of problems. Dr. Ligia Sancho MD had specialized in this kind of treatments in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel.