2020–2021 BCSC Basic and Clinical Science Course™
6 Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
Part I: Strabismus
Chapter 14: Surgery of the Extraocular Muscles
Indications for Surgery
Surgery of the extraocular muscles (EOMs) is performed to improve visual function, appearance, patient well-being, or any combination of these. It may relieve asthenopia (a sense of ocular fatigue) in patients with heterophorias or intermittent heterotropias, or it may relieve the diplopia that often accompanies adult-onset strabismus. Alignment of the visual axes can establish or restore binocular fusion and stereopsis, especially if the preoperative deviation is intermittent or of recent onset. Correction of esotropia expands the binocular visual field. Some patients require an abnormal head position to relieve diplopia or to improve vision. For these patients, surgical treatment may not only increase the field of binocular vision but also shift it to a more useful, centered location. Correction of strabismus should be considered reconstructive rather than merely cosmetic, as it has many functional and psychosocial benefits.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 10 - Glaucoma. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.