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Adult Strabismus

Signs To Look For/Symptoms:

Symptoms of adult strabismus include:

  • Eye fatigue
  • Double vision
  • Overlapped or blurred images
  • A pulling sensation around the eyes
  • Reading difficulty
  • Loss of depth perception

Risk Factors:

Most adults with strabismus have had the condition since childhood; however some medical problems can lead to it, such as:

  • Diabetes
  • Thyroid disease
  • Myasthenia gravis
  • Brain tumor
  • Head trauma
  • Strokes

Main risk factor is poor vision due to the effects of adult strabismus.

Preventative Measures:

Because adult strabismus is usually present from a young age, it is hard to prevent, however treating some of the medical problems that cause adult strabismus can help prevent it.

Recommendations:

Adult strabismus can be treated with eye muscle exercises, eyeglasses containing prisms, botulinum toxin injections, and eye surgery.

Eye muscle exercise is usually used when treating a form of adult strabismus, called convergence insufficiency, where eyes cannot align themselves for close reading. These exercises can retrain your eyes to focus inward together.

Prism eyeglasses can be used to correct mild double vision associated with adult strabismus.

Eye muscle surgery is the most common treatment. Since strabismus occurs when the muscles around the eye either tighten or loosen, surgery can allow the ophthalmologist to readjust the muscles.