Incidence of strabismus and amblyopia in preverbal children previously diagnosed with pseudoesotropia

Incidence of Strabismus and Amblyopia Among Children Initially Diagnosed With Pseudostrabismus Using the Optum Data Set

PURPOSE

To determine the frequency of strabismus among children initially diagnosed with pseudostrabismus using big data.

DESIGN

Population-based retrospective cohort study.

METHODS

Setting: Population-based retrospective cohort study using claims data. StudyPopulation: 17,885 children diagnosed with pseudostrabismus at age ≤3 years who were later diagnosed with strabismus using the Optum deidentified Clinformatics Data Mart Database (2003-2016). We excluded patients diagnosed with strabismus before the diagnosis of pseudostrabismus or diagnosed simultaneously with strabismus and pseudostrabismus.

OBSERVATIONS

We assessed age, refractive error, and presence of amblyopia. Patients with pseudostrabismus were compared to a group of patients from the Optum data set diagnosed with esotropia, exotropia, and unspecified heterotropia who had not been previously diagnosed with pseudostrabismus. MainOutcomeMeasures: Incidence of strabismus, among patients initially diagnosed with pseudostrabismus vs those without an initial diagnosis of pseudostrabismus.

RESULTS

Strabismus was diagnosed in 9.6% (n = 1,725) of children initially diagnosed with pseudostrabismus at a median age of 1.65 years (IQR: 1.17-2.46) compared to 1.7% (136,047 of 7,787,743) of children in the control group (P < .001). Strabismus was diagnosed more than a year later in the pseudostrabismus group (3.32 years; IQR: 2.28-4.74) compared with the control group (2.28 years, IQR: 1.43-3.16) (P < .001). Esotropia was the most common type of strabismus in both groups (pseudostrabismus, 69.7%; control, 62.1%). A total of 377 children (21.9%) in the pseudostrabismus group underwent strabismus surgery compared with 12.1% of children in the control group (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Young children diagnosed with pseudostrabismus are at increased risk of developing strabismus and undergoing strabismus surgery.

Development of Strabismus in Children Initially Diagnosed with Pseudostrabismus

PURPOSE

To evaluate the incidence of strabismus in children initially diagnosed with pseudostrabismus and to identify risk factors for the development of strabismus.

METHODS

The medical records of patients who were diagnosed with pseudostrabismus at initial examinations in outpatient clinic were reviewed retrospectively. Follow-up examinations were made at the strabismus department. Age at first examination, gender, family and developmental history, ophthalmic and orthoptic findings including orbit, and eyelid pathologies were investigated.

RESULTS

Sixty-five patients with the diagnosis of pseudostrabismus were identified; 2 patients (3.1%) had pseudoexotropia, and 63 patients (96.9%) had pseudoesotropia. The mean age at the initial exam was 29.26±26.68 months (range; 4-120 months). Epicanthal skin folds (n=35), flat broad nasal bridge (n=17), blepharophimosis syndrome (n=1), hypertelorism (n=1), telecanthus (n=1), and multiple pathologies (n=10) were the reasons for pseudostrabismus. Six patients (9.2%) had clinically significant hypermetropia. Anisometropia and amblyopia were detected in 1 (1.5%) and 3 patients (4.6%), respectively, at the initial examination. The mean follow-up period was 25.2±23.28 months (range; 1-154 months). During the follow-up period, true strabismus was detected in 8 cases (12%); of these, 5 cases had non-refractive esotropia, 2 cases had refractive accommodative esotropia, and 1 case had exotropia. Binocular single vision was not developed following amblyopia therapy and refractive correction in esotropic cases. Binocular single vision and best corrected visual acuity were statistically significant risk factors for the development of strabismus (P=0.001).

CONCLUSION

The pseudostrabismic children with subnormal binocular single vision or low visual acuity require follow-up for the risk of development of true strabismus.

A 1-Year Review of Amblyopia and Strabismus Research

PURPOSE

This current review highlights some of the literature published in the past year from April 2013 to May 2014.

DESIGN

Literature Review.

METHODS

The present review is based on an extended search for pertinent articles on amblyopia and strabismus published during the specified period.

RESULTS

Many articles are often not very comparable to one another because of a lack of randomized clinical trials with most of the studies being retrospective in nature. There is often disagreement on some terminology. Typically, the definition of binocular vision is rarely related to the tests used for evaluating it.

CONCLUSIONS

The authors conclude that adult strabismus patients seem to gain benefits from corrective surgery not only for their ocular misalignment, but also for social anxiety levels that may be associated with improvements in their quality of life and disability levels.