Strabismus and postural control: a systematic review

The primary aim of this systematic review is to evaluate how postural balance and visual system are related in cross-eyed patients. The secondary goal is to assess the benefits of eye realignment on motor skills and body balance. Analyzing two different approaches: surgical or conservative, a systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed-Medline, Google Scholar and Cochrane Central in order to identify randomized controlled trials, case series and case-control studies which contained clinical evaluation of balance in strabismic patients as well as re-evaluation after surgery or conservative treatments via posturography to evaluate surface, length and mean speed of the center of pressure (CoP). A total of 11 studies were included in this review. The MINORS score is used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies, and its mean value was 12.8 for non-comparative studies and 17.5 for comparative studies. The postural balance was lower in strabismic patients compared with the control group, with statically higher value (p < 0.05) of surface, length and mean speed of the CoP in the study group. All patients show improvement in stability after surgery, as surface, length and mean speed of the CoP decreased after surgery in all the studies with statistical significance (p < 0.05).