Eye movements in children with strabismus +/- amblyopia
Reviewed by Fiona Rowe

The aim of this study was to detect eye movement recording abnormalities using different paradigms in children with strabismus in the absence or presence of amblyopia and compare these findings with age-matched children without strabismus. One hundred children were recruited over a two-year period: 50 with strabismus (24 with amblyopia) aged 7-17 years and 50 healthy age and gender matched controls. Group 1 had 24 children with strabismus and amblyopia, group 2 had 26 children with strabismus but no amblyopia and group 3 had 50 controls. The spherical equivalent mean refractive error was significantly greater for hypermetropia in groups 1 and 2 versus 3. A significant difference in visual acuity was found for group 1 versus 3. For eye movement recordings, children with strabismus had longer first fixation duration in most scenes and decreased fixation count in the distance / near task. The strabismus group had decreased first fixation duration and the children without amblyopia had a lower fixation count for the reading paradigm. Less fixations and shorter durations were recorded in the group without amblyopia for the location identification paradigm. There was no significant difference for the moving target paradigm. The authors conclude that strabismus influences location identification and those with strabismus focus less and for shorter times when reading.

Eye tracking abnormalities in school-aged children with strabismus and without and without amblyopia.
Al-Haddad C, Hayeck S, Torbey J, et al.
JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGY AND STRABISMUS
2019;56(5):297-304.