Prematurity May Affect the Postoperative Sensory Results in Children With Strabismus

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Pediatric Surgery
• Developmental Neuroscience

Background:

• Strabismus surgery aims to correct eye alignment in children.
• Preterm birth can impact neurodevelopmental outcomes, potentially affecting visual pathways.
• Understanding surgical outcomes in preterm infants is crucial for optimizing care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare motor and sensory outcomes of strabismus surgery in children born preterm versus full-term.
• To evaluate surgical success, refractive outcomes, and visual functions like stereopsis and fusion.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of children undergoing strabismus surgery between 2012 and 2019 at a tertiary university hospital.
• Comparison of surgical success rates, over/undercorrection rates, and visual test results between premature and control groups.
• Analysis of strabismus subgroups to identify specific impacts on fusion and stereopsis.

Main Results:

• Surgical success, overcorrection, and undercorrection rates were similar between premature (n=70) and full-term (n=242) groups.
• Stereopsis improved significantly in both groups, but the gain was more pronounced in full-term patients (1156 to 685 arc/sec) than preterm patients (560 to 300 arc/sec).
• Fusion rates increased in both groups, with a significant improvement observed only in full-term patients (17% to 47%) compared to preterm patients (12.5% to 25%).

Conclusions:

• While strabismus surgery provides similar functional alignment in preterm and full-term children, preterm infants show less improvement in stereopsis and fusion.
• Preoperative deviation amount is a significant predictor of surgical success.
• Further research may be needed to understand and potentially enhance sensory visual development in preterm children post-strabismus surgery.