OBJECTIVE STRABISMOMETRY IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Abstract

The modern trend toward earlier operation for the correction of strabismus has emphasized as never before the importance of measuring the amount of the deviation in young children. Today, many American ophthalmologists believe that under certain circumstances the operation can be done during the child's second year. It can be said with equal certainty that in many cases it is not only unnecessary but actually harmful to wait for the child to grow to an age at which intelligent cooperation can be obtained. For these reasons it seemed important to review the various methods of strabismometry that have been advocated, in an attempt to find the most accurate and practical means for estimating the deviation in these little patients. <h3>HISTORICAL REVIEW</h3> Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, the textbooks of ophthalmology, as well as the treatises on strabismus, either failed to mention any measurement or else mentioned estimation