Strabismus Treatment

Strabismus Surgery

Treatment for strabismus/eye turns depends on the underlying cause, your age, the type of eye turn you have and previous treatment you have previously received.

It may involve:

• Correction of any focusing issues or other underlying eye conditions

• Patching (in children) to strengthen the vision in the affected eye

• Prism in glasses to help optically realign the image to each eye

• Exercises to improve your natural ability to align your eyes

• Botulinum toxin injection to relax your eye muscles

• Surgery on the eye muscles to realign the eyes

Many people believe that eye turns can only be corrected in childhood. This is not the case and it is very rare for there to be no further options available to improve either the abnormal appearance or double vision resulting from an eye turn.

The aim of strabismus surgery is to straighten the eyes so that they are pointing in the same direction and moving together. It may be done to improve  double vision, facilitate the development of the way the two eyes are used together and improve the appearance of the turn.

The procedure is a day surgery under general anaesthetic (you are completely unconscious during surgery) and is usually between 45-90 min in duration. The muscles that surround the eye may have their position moved or be shortened to either increase or decrease the way the pull on the eye. The eye is not removed during  surgery on the eye muscles.  

Most patients will require 1-2 weeks to recover and return to all normal activities. It is recommended you avoid swimming or activities that are dirty, high impact or have heavy weight for 2 weeks after surgery. Dr Sharwood will discuss your particular situation in regard to return to work and driving at your consultation. Your eyes will be red and irritated with some eyelid puffiness for the first week or 2. Mild eye redness and sensitivity may persist for 4-6 weeks. 

The risk of serious complications from strabismus/squint surgery is very low.

The most common risks associated with strabismus surgery are:

• over or undercorrection for your degree of turn that may need another surgery to fine tune

• Recurrence of your eye turn again in the future

• Double vision (common immediately after surgery and settles in 1-2 weeks but may rarely persist longer than this)

• Persistent redness of the eyes or change in eyelid position.

I have had previous strabismus surgery, is it possible to have more?

It is possible to repeat eye turn surgery multiple times throughout life if needed. Occasional patients who have had multiple surgeries may have reached a point where it is difficult to get much further improvmemt. In this situation alternatives such as Botox injection or glasses may be a better option.