SQUINT
Squint (Strabismus) is a disease that generally affects children. It refers to the misalignment of the two eyes so that both the eyes are not looking in the same direction. This misalignment may be constant, being present throughout the day or it may appear sometimes and the rest of the time the eyes may be straight.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
The most common signs are:
Deviation of eyes
Double Vision
Misalignment of eyes
CAUSES OF SQUINT
The exact cause of squint is not known. The movement of each eye is controlled by six muscles. Each of these muscles act along with its counterpart in the other eye to keep both the eyes aligned properly. A loss of coordination between the muscles of the two eyes leads to misalignment.
TREATMENT
The objectives of treatment are to restore vision, straighten the eyes, and restore binocular vision.
Squint surgery is a day care surgery and is done to treat squint. During surgery, one or more muscles are weakened or strengthened (by moving their attachment backward or forward) to make the eye straight. The procedure is done under local anaesthesia in adults and general anaesthesia in children.
It is extremely rare that more than one operation is needed. Sometimes the squint is too large and hence a two-stage surgery is planned. The world over average is 2.3 operations to achieve ideal correction of squint.
