Strabismus and double vision, which occur in thyroid-related eye involvement, are perhaps the findings that most negatively affect the social daily life of the person. Patients often try to see one eye and maintain their lives by covering one eye with the help of a band or cloth. Double vision may initially appear in the morning and improve towards evening. However, later on, double vision develops at more times of the day and becomes permanent. In these patients, disease activity, timing, double vision process, and other accompanying ocular findings should be evaluated by an oculoplastic and orbital surgeon. In the treatment of strabismus, correction is aimed primarily with prismatic glasses. Surgical treatment is applied in cases who cannot use glasses or cannot provide adequate correction with glasses. This treatment is a surgery performed under general or local anesthesia for one or both eyes.
Dr. The 3 most frequently asked questions to Onur Konuk about strabismus surgery:
1. Strabismus goes away when I close one eye. So the slippage is in one eye, but my doctor says I need to have surgery on both eyes. What should I do?
Thyroid-related strabismus often affects both eyes. The number of eyes to be intervened in strabismus surgery is related to the degree of deviation. Lower deviations can be corrected with a single eye intervention, while larger deviations may require intervention in both eyes.
2. I had a dislocation of my eye due to thyroid. I had decompression surgery. Later, double vision developed. What should I do?
Current techniques used in decompression surgery are very advanced today and the possibility of double vision after surgery has decreased considerably. Despite this, especially in patients with double vision while looking to the right and left before surgery, double vision may develop after decompression surgery. While most of these patients recover on their own within 2-3 months, prismatic glasses or surgical treatment can be applied in cases that do not improve.
3. Is strabismus observed in thyroid patients similar to strabismus in children?
No. In thyroid patients, treatment is more difficult because of both function and deformity of the eye muscles. Here, each patient’s own findings are unique and differ from person to person. For this reason, in each case, a personalized treatment is planned in line with the activity of the disease, thyroid hormone tests, and other accompanying thyroid-related ocular findings.