A REVIEW OF CERTAIN OCULAR CASES IN WHICH STRABISMUS WAS CORRECTED BY MEANS OF LENSES, PRISMS AND ORTHOPTIC TREATMENTS

Abstract

Summary A number of cases of strabismus have been presented. These cases had originally consulted oculists, who had failed to relieve the condition. The patients then consulted optometrists. The treatment techniques prescribed by these optometrists corrected the neuro-muscular defect and returned the eyes to as near normal binocular vision as was possible. A review of these cases indicates that the treatment of stralismus is a difficult matter, requiring special training and skill usually not found among those oculists who have received their training in ocular work at a several months' short course dealing with eye, ear, nose and throat work. These cases also indicate that strabismus can he successfully corrected by means of optometric procedures and orthoptic treatment techniques. They also indicate that many oculists fail to attempt these special therapies either because of a lack of knowledge as to their application or to an inability to properly diagnose the cases which can be benefited by means of these techniques. The cases also indicate that many oculists ignore the treatment possibilities of strabismus in order that surgical interference may be suggested. In one sense, this is perhaps natural as most physicians enjoy surgery. In this type of case, however, it is to be regretted that this is so, inasmuch as many of these case of strabismus can be corrected without resorting to the inconvenience and expense of having the patient operated upon. Furthermore, the treatment of concomitant strabismus is, in the writer's judgment, more apt to prove successful than the surgical interference. For this reason, he advises surgery only as a last resort for these strabismic cases. Orthoptic treatment and correction of strabismus is a work closely allied with ocular examinations and refractions. The cases reviewed in this report indicate that optometrists, with their fine background of training received in their colleges and university courses, are well able, because of this training, to successfully prescribe the necessary orthoptic techniques which will relieve the condition and correct the strabismus.