[Feasibility of prismatic correction of microesotropia using the measuring and correcting methodology by H.-J. Haase]

The "Measuring and Correcting Methodology after H.-J. Haase" is based on the assumption that a minute deviation from the orthovergence position (fixation disparity) indicates a difficulty to overcome a larger "vergence angle of rest". Objective recordings have, however, revealed that the subjective tests applied in the "Measuring and Correcting Methodology after H.-J. Haase" can mislead to the assumption of a fixation disparity, although both eyes are aligned exactly to the fixation point.

How do patients with an inconspicuously small, yet objectively verified strabismus react to the "Measuring and Correcting Methodology by H.-J. Haase"?

Eight patients with a microesotropia between 0.5 and 3 degrees were subjected to the "Measuring and Correcting Methodology after H.-J. Haase.

In all 8 patients, the prisms determined with the Cross-, Pointer- and Rectangle Tests increased the angle of squint, without reaching a full correction: the original angle prevailed. In the Stereobalance Test, prisms did not reduce the 100 % preponderance of the non-squinting eye. The stereoscopic threshold was between 36 and 1170 arcsec in 7 out of the 8 subjects, and above 4000 arcsec in 1 subject.

(1) In all 8 patients, prisms determined with the "Measuring and Correcting Methodology by H.-J. Haase" increased the angle of strabismus, without reaching bifoveal vision. This uniform result suggests that primary microesotropia cannot be corrected with the "Measuring and Correcting Methodology after H.-J. Haase" (2) A lacking contribution of the strabismic eye to the recognition of a lateral offset between stereo objects, as determined with the Stereobalance Test, does not imply a lack of binocular stereopsis.