Strabismus surgery at the Puerto Rico Medical Center: a brief report

We undertook a retrospective study to evaluate strabismus surgeries done at the University Hospital and at the University Pediatric Hospital of the Puerto Rico Medical Center.

The surgery schedules ranging from January 2003 to December 2007 were reviewed. Three types of strabismus were evaluated, including esotropia, exotropia, and hypertopia. Differences in the distribution of strabismus type according to age group and gender were assessed using the extension of the Fisher's exact test.

A total of 120 patients were included (56 males and 64 females); the patients ranged in age from 4 months to 70 years (average: 15.1 years. Analysis of the distribution of strabismus type showed that 63 (52.5%) had esotropia; 49 (40.8%) had exotropia; 4 (3.3%) had hypertropia; 3 (2.5%) had both hypertropia and exotropia; and 1 (0.9%) had both hypertropia and esotropia. Both esotropia and exotropia were significantly (p < 0.0001) more common in children than they were in adults; however, hypertropia and combined strabismus types were more common in adults than they were in children. There was no statistical (p > 0.05) significance found upon analyzing strabismus distribution according to gender.

Among patients with this eye disorder at the Puerto Rico Medical Center, the most common type of surgically treated strabismus was esotropia. Further studies will elucidate the prevalence of strabismus in Puerto Rico.