Objective:
Evaluation of etiologic factors and examination of clinical features of paralytic strabismus cases.
Material and Methods:
Cases with paralytic strabismus between January 2003 and February 2006 were evaluated retrospectively. Sixty seven patients were evaluated according to age, sex, etiology, type of paralysis, and clinical improvement.
Results:
The mean age of 67 patients was 22.92 (3-78) with a male to female ratio of 26/41. Age of 37 cases (55.2%) was below 18 and 30 cases (44.7%) were above 18 years of age. There were trochlear palsy in 45 cases (67.1%), abducens palsy in 11 cases (16.4%), oculomotor palsy in 8 cases (11.9%), oculomotor and trochlear palsy in 1 cases (1.4%), oculomotor and abducens in 1 cases (1.4%), multiple cranial nevre paralysis in 1 cases (1.4%). Etiology was congenital in 32 case (47.7%), idiopathic in 13 case (19.4%), trauma in 12 cases (17.9%), vascular factors were determined in 6 cases (8.9%). Cranial nerve involvement was unilateral in 52 (77.6%) and bilateral in 15 cases (22.3%). Trochlear paralysis and congenital causes were most common seen type of palsy and etiologic factor in cases with ages below 18 years of age and adult group (above 18 year).
Conclusion:
Trochlear nerve palsy was most common paralysis in childhood and adulthood in our clinic. Abducens and oculomotor nerve paralysis followed sequentially. We thought that further studies must be done with evaluation of ocular and neurological signs in order to find etiologic causes.
Keywords: Paralytic strabismus, etiology