Characteristics and Trends of Strabismus Surgeries at a Tertiary Hospital Over 2 Decades - What Can Be Learned for Years to Come?

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To analyze characteristics and trends of strabismus surgeries in an Israeli hospital over 2 decades.

Methods

A descriptive, retrospective study including all strabismus surgeries (666) performed during 2000–2019 at an Israeli tertiary hospital. Electronic medical records (EMRs) were directly retrieved to produce an anonymized database.

Results

No trends were evident for age, sex, or ethnicity (p = .294, 0.914 and p = .167, respectively). The mean number of horizontal muscles remained stable, while an increase was noted in the mean number of muscles operated on to repair vertical strabismus (p < .0001). Among acquired cases, a 2.67-fold increase was noted in the proportion of spontaneous strabismus and a decrease of traumatic causes to a third (p < .001). An increase was noted in the proportion of exotropia among horizontal strabismus corrections (p = .022), and esotropia correction techniques distribution changed (p = .004). Reoperations comprised a third of all cases during both decades (p = .198). Reoperations were more prevalent among younger and Jewish patients (p < .001 and p = .024, respectively). Techniques to correct esotropia and exotropia differed significantly between primary surgeries and reoperations (p < .00001 each).

Conclusions

The complexity of surgical techniques increased over time. Ethnic minorities were less prone to reoperations.

KEYWORDS:

• Esotropia
• exotropia
• strabismus
• squint
• surgery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2576117X.2024.2364946.