Strabismus is a condition in which the eyes point in different directions. Other terms used to describe strabismus are "squint", "wandering eye", "cross eyed", or a "lazy eye".
When an eye is turned inwards this is known as a convergent squint or an esotropia.
When an eye is turned outwards this is known as a divergent squint or an exotropia.
When an eye is deviated upwards this is known as a vertical squint or hypertropia.
|
|
Squint Treatment:
Before we treat the squint we must focus on visual problems and associating ambylopia or lazy eye. When most parents focus on the squint for cosmetic reasons, the doctors main concern should be the development of visual center in the brain.
We must not also forget that squint could be a result of vision problems and correction of that problem means correcting the resulting squint. So, in summary, the treatment is:
1- If Lazy eye present then we have to patch the dominant eye to encourage the patient to use the lazy one.
2- Correction of any visual problems like myopia( near sightedness) or hypermytropia( far-sightedness) by wearing glasses.
3- In many cases of strabismus, surgery is the only effective treatment. The aims of strabismus surgery are:
• to eliminate double vision if present.
• to improve three-dimensional vision.
• to eliminate an abnormal head posture.
• improvement of psychosocial function.
• re-alignment of the eye muscles where necessary to achieve satisfactory function and cosmetic appearance
.