Bilateral optic disc pathologies as an accompanying feature of comitant strabismus in children

Abstract

Purpose

To describe and report accompanying bilateral optic disc pathologies in children with comitant strabismus.

Methods

Twenty-eight patients (16 female, 12 male) aged between 1 and 12 years who had comitant strabismus and bilateral optic disc pathologies were included in the study. Visual acuity, refractive errors, amount of deviation and types of optic disc pathologies were all recorded. Each patient underwent complete neurological and ophthalmological examination.

Results

Of the 28 patients, 14 (50.0%) had esotropia and 14 (50.0%) had exotropia. The mean age was 4.18 ± 3.03 years. The mean deviation angle was 35.30 ± 13.26 prism diopters (PD) (20–70 PD). Optic atrophy as being the most common pathology was found in nine (32.1%) patients. Six (21.4%) patients had temporal disc pallor, six (21.4%) patients had optic nerve hypoplasia, and seven (25%) patients had other optic disc anomalies (tilted disc, megalodisc, disc coloboma, peripapillary staphyloma). Optic disc pathologies were found to be isolated in 12 patients. Nine of 13 patients with congenital optic disc pathologies had esotropia, whereas 10 of 15 patients with optic atrophy or optic disc pallor had exotropia.

Conclusion

Comitant strabismus in children can be associated with congenital or acquired optic disc pathologies. It is worthy of note that esotropia was more common in patients with congenital optic disc pathologies, whereas exotropia was more frequent in patients with optic atrophy or optic disc pallor. The findings of the present study show that complete ophthalmological examination including fundus evaluation should be carried out in all patients with strabismus even though the cause of ocular misalignment is obvious.