[Paralytic strabismus: review of 24 years at "Santa Casa de São Paulo"]

To describe the incidence, etiologies and follow-up of patients with paralytic strabismus.

Retrospective study of 519 strabismic patients with isolated III, IV or VI cranial nerve palsy of 11,000 charts of the Ocular Motility Section of the Department of Ophthalmology of "Faculdade de Ciências Médicas Santa Casa de São Paulo", Brazil, between January 1980 and October 2004. This study analyzed: the injured cranial nerve, affected eye, sex distribution, etiology and follow-up.

It was found that 17.1% of the cases were congenital and 82.9% acquired. The VI cranial nerve was the most frequently affected (49.7%). The incidence was higher in males (58.1%). Traumatism was the most common cause of III (43.0%), IV (52.4%) and VI (48.8%) nerve palsy. Surgery was performed in the three groups: third nerve (42.9%), fourth nerve (73.2%) and sixth nerve (43.2%).

The sixth cranial nerve was the most frequently affected and the most common cause was traumatism, the same as observed in the literature.