CHILDHOOD STRABISMUS
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Strabismus / Squint
Strabismus refers to the condition of the eyes being misaligned so that only one eye at a time fixes on the visual target. If left untreated, it will produce monocular visual disability or blindness.?Strabismus, the official term, can assume many forms:?1) Exotropia (‘wall eyes’) refers to outward deviation?2) Esotropia (‘crossed eyes’) refers to inward deviation?3) Hypertropia refers to upward deviation of one eye?4) Hypotropia refers to downward deviation of one eye?and even combinations such as out with down etc.
In all cases of strabismus, one eye does the sighting while the other eye looks somewhere else. In a few people the sighting eye and turning eye will alternate roles each periodically doing the sighting. A common misconception is that strabismus is caused by weak muscles. While on rare occasions a paralyzed or misconnected muscle is the culprit, the muscles attached to the eyeball are very strong and the range of movements quite remarkable. The real problem is that the two eyes just won’t work jointly as the brain’s passion to avoid double vision.?Another common type of strabismus is caused by high amounts of farsightedness. This is the classic case of one eye turning inward toward the nose. To see clearly, the farsighted eyes must use an exceptional amount of focusing power. But, since focusing and turning the eyes inward work together, double vision ensues. To get out of this quandary, the brain learned that by turning one eye inward a bit more, the image falls on the normal blind spot. Thus, only one image is seen. Other types of crossed eyes have other causes, yet are not know.
Some of the patients may have inherited strabismus. It occurs early in childhood without any apparent cause and is called Primary Strabismus. Another type of strabismus that follow trauma directly to one or both eyes is called Secondary Strabismus.
Secondary strabismus may be due to a cranial nerve palsy from:?• head injury?• intracranial mass ( brain tumor or abscess)?• vascular accident (stroke)?• diabetes mellitus?• vascular disease?• systemic hypertension?• heart disease
Strabismus cannot be treated solely by medication. The actual treatment procedures can be quite involved, but the following steps are taken:?1) Glasses are prescribed. If necessary, a prism effect is incorporated into the lenses to shift the images closer together?2) Vision therapy (orthoptics) is used to break up the suppression habit. Once there is an awareness of double vision when the eyes are not straight, the patient is trained to fuse the two images into one. As this progresses, the eyes will slowly assume a straight posture for longer periods of time.?3) Stereopsis is developed and the new vision pattern reinforced to keep the eyes from recrossing.
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/vision-articles/types-of-eye-disease-1465100.html#ixzz1dbFSZjnF