[Prognosis of functional healing of infantile strabismus]

One hundred and forth-three patients suffering from infantile strabismus, who had undergone surgery on the horizontal eye muscles between the ages of 0 and 6 years were re-examined with the aim of establishing a correlation between the date of operation and functional healing (binocular single vision in space). In 89 patients (62%) a cosmetically satisfactory result (alignment) was achieved. The number of operations and functional healing (binocular single vision in space). In 89 patients (62%) a cosmetically satisfactory result (alignment) was achieved. The number of operations needed decreased with increasing age. Of the 89 patients with alignment, 61 (69%) were found to have binocular single vision in space, while 13 (15%) patients presented with stereopsis. Impairment of functional results was found to correlate with higher age at the first operation or on the date when alignment was reached for the first time, respectively. In cases with amblyopia or vertical divergences which had received insufficient postoperative treatment, attainment of binocular single vision or, respectively, the stability thereof was impaired. Therefore, with respect to functional healing, early surgical correction of strabismus is only recommended if adequate postoperative conservative and/or surgical after-treatment is assured. The postulate that successful functional healing can only be achieved by operations up to the second year (early surgery) is not supported by our data.