Approach to Oculomotor Apraxia: A Syndromic Approach to Genetic Causes

Oculomotor apraxia (OMA), the clinical manifestation of impaired voluntary initiation of saccadic eye movements, has long been associated with several disorders and genetic mutations in the literature.

The present study aims to review all the disorders and genetic mutations associated with OMA reported in the literature.

PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for related keywords, and related publications from January 2000 to January 2024 were reviewed.

All the disorders and genetic mutations presented with OMA in the literature were reported. Clinical manifestations of the congenital disorders- particularly members of autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxias- including Joubert syndrome, ataxia with oculomotor apraxia, ataxia-telangiectasia, and other disorders were discussed, Additionally, the pathophysiology of the genetic mutations in the anatomical pathway of OMA is discussed in this paper.

Most of the cases with OMA present this sign early in their disease course; thus, evaluating the possible differential diagnoses can guide clinicians to a more accurate diagnosis. Understanding the spectrum of disorders and clinical manifestations with OMA also provides valuable insights into further clinic-pathological and genetic evaluations of this clinical manifestation.