MAR 19, 2010
Pediatric Ophth/Strabismus
Researchers sent a postal questionnaire to consecutive strabismus patients under the care of one surgeon to determine the duration of conjunctival redness following adult strabismus surgery. A total of 93 muscles were operated on in the 53 patients who returned a completed questionnaire. Forty-seven muscles had been previously operated on, and 50 were sutured with adjustable sutures.
The median post-surgery redness duration was statistically similar for both previously unoperated eyes (9.5 weeks) and reoperated eyes (11 weeks), as it was for eyes sewed with adjustable sutures (11 weeks) and those sewed with nonadjustable sutures (10 weeks). By the fifth postoperative week, approximately 25 percent of patients found that their operated eye had returned to its preoperative color. By 10 weeks, 50 percent of patients reported resolution of conjunctival redness, and by 15 weeks, 75 percent of patients reported no redness. A minority of patients had prolonged postoperative conjunctival redness beyond 24 weeks.
The authors pointed out that female eyes had a longer median redness duration than males eyes (12 weeks versus 9 weeks) and that redness duration was directly proportional to age. Since there were many more male non-responders (56 percent) than male responders (28 percent), and since the mean age of non-responders (36.7) was younger than that of responders (46.1), if all 101 patients recruited to the study had actually returned their questionnaires, the reported duration of conjunctival redness following strabismus surgery may have been less.