The incidence of strabismus and refractive error in patients with blepharophimosis, ptosis and epicanthus inversus syndrome (BPES)

Abstract

A retrospective review was carried out of 204 patients with blepharophimosis, (blepharo)ptosis and epicanthus inversus syndrome (BPES). Of these, 94 (46%) had an autosomal dominant family history of BPES. Forty (20%) had manifest strabismus. Of these, 28 (70%) had esotropia, 10 (25%) had exotropia and 2 (5%) had hypertropia. Twelve (6%) patients had nystagmus. Seventy (34%) patients had a significant refractive error requiring spectacles. Twenty-one (30%) of these patients had anisometropic hypermetropia and 24 (34%) had anisometropic myopia. Forty-three patients had bilateral amblyopia and 40 had unilateral amblyopia, with 26 (65%) of these undergoing occlusion treatment. Of these, 14 had strabismus and refractive error, 7 refractive error only, 2 strabismus only and 3 neither refractive error nor strabismus. We conclude that there is a higher incidence of strabismus and refractive error in patients with BPES than in the normal population.