Strabismus

The situation where the eyes look in different directions as a result of the deterioration of the parallelism of the eyes is called strabismus or crossed eyes. The most important symptom is that the eyes look in different directions. When looking at a point, one eye is looking straight while the other eye is looking in a different direction. While one eye is in the midline, the other eye may turn inward, outward, upward or downward. Squint of the eyes can occur continuously or intermittently. Also, changes in head position may develop. When the slippage occurs suddenly in a person who did not have strabismus before, double vision may develop. The diagnosis of strabismus can be made by an eye examination by an ophthalmologist. Early diagnosis is very important in strabismus, because if it is delayed, permanent vision loss (lazy eye-amblyopia) may occur. In addition, the success of the surgery and treatment applied to correct the slippage is higher with early diagnosis. If strabismus is not treated, the amount of strabismus may gradually increase and the eye movements may become restricted.