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The primary symptoms of strabismus (being cross eyed and lack of binocular vision) can be treated to a certain degree and through various ways to correct or minimize the effects of the condition. However yes, strabismus itself is permanent. Some typical and common treatments include strabismus surgery (eye muscle surgery), glasses, eye patch therapy, eye exercises, and botox. While most parents want to try non-surgical methods first, often strabismus surgery is the only solution to correct being cross eyed and properly align the eyes. During strabismus surgery, the surgeon will operate on the muscles surrounding the eye. Often muscles are tightened or loosened by shortening or repositioning the muscles of the eye.
Of course you should explore all options available and even pursue a second opinion if another pediatric ophthalmologist is available. Additionally, it is important to know that even when strabismus surgery is recommended, glasses and/or eye patch treatment are often prescribed in order to prevent or correct amblyopia.
That’s as technical as I want to be in this post. As you know I’m not a doctor. My experience comes directly from being a parent of a child with strabismus and minor amblyopia.
So, yes the condition itself is permanent however with the proper treatment, the obvious symptoms of strabismus (being cross eyed), can be minimized. And, if treated early enough your child can retain or gain binocular vision and enjoy life as you and I know it.
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Thank you! This confirms what I understood about the condition and the surgery, but you explained it very clearly. Did you child develop the amblyopia before or after the strabismus surgery? We’ve been lucky in that so far, Zoe’s eyes are both working well (though they do need glasses), and both turn in equally, which means that neither is particularly dominant, they just aren’t working well together. I’m really hoping that we can avoid amblyopia.
Hi Ann. Our son developed minor amblyopia before the strabismus surgery. We did glasses and patching for almost a year before his first surgery. The alignment didn’t get any better during this time but the eyes became more equal as far as vision was concerned.
We actually went through several ophthalmologists prior to the first surgery. Once we started the first surgery we kept the same ophthalmologist for the duration and even to this day for continued follow-ups. Our current doc actually stated early on that by the time we got to him we should have already had the first surgery based on the severity of our son’s misalignment.
Question for you…Our 16 month old son is going through glasses/patches and has been for about 6-7 weeks now. Today we were information by his doctor that he feels our son has congenital strabismus and feels surgery is the only way to change it. Glasses/Patches although may be helping a little bit, are not helping 100%. My question is, his doctor is not a pediatric opthamologist, just a doctor that sees children – if you were me, would you pursue a second opinion to a pediatric opthamologist even if you knew in your heart surgery was the only fix? I am just really struggling with what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Katie,
Yes. I would without a doubt seek a second opinion. However please know that I say this not as a way to “hope someone will tell you something else” but as a way to ensure that more than one person agrees with any recommendation that you receive.
It is also highly likely that your current doctor would refer you to a pediatric ophthalmologist anyway b/c your current doctor more than likely is not qualified to perform the surgery.
Even when you begin seeing a PO, you should get a second opinion to get another qualified doctor’s view of the situation. Check with your insurance company, but usually second opinions for specialists are covered without problems and without requiring a primary care physician’s referral.
Let me know how things progress.
– Johnny Vargas