ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate whether strabismus surgery improves the learning performance - calculation, reading and drawing - of school-aged children. METHODS: In a case-control study, patients between the ages of 7 and 10 years with horizontal strabismus, recommended for surgical correction, were prospectively included. Reading, calculating and drawing abilities were evaluated before and 3 months after corrective strabismus surgery using standardized tests. Cases were compared to control patients: patients with a surgical indication postponed due to the COVID lockdown. RESULTS: Forty-two operated patients and 42 controls between the ages of 7 and 10 years with horizontal strabismus were included. The average reading speed was 65.8 words per minute pre-operatively compared to 80.6 words per minute post-operatively (p = 0.0038). The average drawing score was 71.1 pre-operatively compared to 84.3 post-operatively (p = 0.012). The average calculation score was 3.2 pre-operatively compared to 3.4 post-operatively (p = 0.363). Improvement given by strabismus surgery was confirmed avoiding the learning effect by comparison with the control group. The improvements observed were more significant in the youngest patients and esotropia. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that strabismus surgery significantly improved the children's reading fluency and drawing task execution. These encouraging data should be taken into account when considering the indications for strabismus surgery.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Esotropia , Strabismus , Humans , Child , Case-Control Studies , Ophthalmologic Surgical Procedures , Communicable Disease Control , Oculomotor Muscles/surgery , Strabismus/surgery , Esotropia/surgery , Retrospective Studies , Vision, BinocularABSTRACT
A 56-year-old man presented a particularly severe and multisystemic case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition to the common lung and quite common pulmonary embolism and kidney injuries, he presented ocular and intestinal injuries that, to our knowledge, have not been described in COVID-19 patients. Although it is difficult to make pathophysiological hypotheses about a single case, the multiplicity of injured organs argues for a systemic response to pulmonary infection. A better understanding of physiopathology should feed the discussion about therapeutic options in this type of multifocal damage related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.