Surgical treatment of congenital esotropia

This study was done on 25 patients with congenital esotropes with deviations of 50 prism diopters or greater, the success rate of large [6 and 7] bilateral medial rectus recessions was found to be 88%. Judgment of final aligment was made six weeks post operatively, average follow up 12 months. Large bilateral medial rectus recessions are an effective surgical treatment for congenital esotropia. This procedure does not significantly alter adduction, and leave other muscles available for further surgery if necessary. These findings show that initial surgery on three or more muscles unnecessary in congenital esotropia

Childhood blindness in Iraq

One hundred and fifty students, blind before the age of 12 years, attending a special educational institution were studied. All students underwent a complete ophthalmological evaluation. Prior to 1970, acquired diseases as chronic bacterial and viral keratities led to blindness in 70% of students, while from 1970 on wards genetically determined diseases, particularly Congenital Cataract, counted for 81% of childhood blindness, 50% of them came from consanguineous marriages. The visual acuity in 32% was no light perception, in 60% varying from light perception to counting fingers at one mater and the rest had a vision varying between counting fingers at one mater and 6/60

Visual disorders associated with cerebral palsy

Ninety children with cerebral palsy were examined in the ophthalmic and paediatric clinics, Medical City Teaching hospital in Baghdad during the years 1984 and 1985. This group of children ranged in age from 9 months to 10 years and were moderately to severly disabled. The most frequent type of ocular defect was that associated with external ocular movement, of these 67% had gross strabismus [squint], 23% had nystagmus and 3% had gaze palsy. Refractive error with or without squint was found only in 40% of them and there was a high incidence of strabismic and anisometropic emblyopia with 11% of them had a normal eye and ocular adnexae. It has been found that there is no strong connection between the different types of cerebral palsy and the various forms of strabismus, and the type of strabismus is more or less independent on the stage of refraction