Strabismus A Neurodevelopmental Approach


Book Description

Over the more than three decades of my life as a physician, I have been constantly amazed at how subtle and elegant nature is as a teacher. Our questions to her, though, must be clear and unambiguous. Otherwise, the answers we receive are likely to be misleading and confusing. As I have matured as a clinician, I have tried to improve my questions to increase my chances of receiving an answer. For the past decade, I have been pondering the subject of strabismus with which I have busied myself for practically two and one-half decades. I began to realize that my time, my share of wisdom, my abilities to carry out the prodigious work necessary to create a book out of nothing but thought, reading, and reflection on the work of others, as well as my own experience, were perhaps becoming limited. I do not doubt that they will become even more limited! Thus I have been led to write this book. Further, I am left in greater awe of prolific writers, particu larly those who write with the precision and attention to detail necessary for a medical text. Let me warn the reader at the outset that my approach in this book is "teleologi cal. " I am well aware of the conflict between science's notion of causality as only local and instrumental as opposed to the anthropomorphic notion of purpose or design in nature implied by the choice of this teleology.




Convergent Strabismus


Book Description

When the Board of Directors of the Belgian Ophthalmological Soci ety, in its session of November 26th 1978, asked me to prepare a report on strabismus to be presented at the joint meeting of the Dutch and Belgian Ophthalmological Societies to be held on June 13th 1981, I felt greatly honored but still more overwhelmed by the immensity of the task. I took advantage of the complete liberty given to me by the Board of Directors, first to limit the work to one particular form of strabismus, i.e. the convergent comitant form; second, to seek the help of what I thought to be the best strabologists in the Low Countries; third, to aim not at an encyclopedic treatise but at a practical volume destined to the general ophthalmologist. This volume is thus limited to the various aspects of convergent strabismus, more accurately of comitant convergent strabismus. The omission of the word" comitant" is purposely made to avoid the dif fic'ulties accompanying the explanation of this term and all the acroba tics needed to explain that most comitant strabismus are not complete ly comitant. The choice of this particular form of strabismus seems logical. First of all, it is the most common form of strabismus. On the other hand, most principles concerning examination and treatment can with some modifications be applied to other forms of strabismus.




Strabismus and Amblyopia


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The History of Strabismology


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Simultaneous Horizontal and Cyclovertical Strabismus Surgery


Book Description

Thirty years ago, our attention was drawn to the alphabetical incom itances in strabismus. As an elevation in adduction is the most frequent incomitance, we decided to start treating these incomitances. A weak ening procedure of the inferior oblique muscle seemed indicated. How ever, since we wanted to prevent a torsional overcorrection with a head tilt, we displaced the scleral insertion of the oblique muscle towards the equator of the globe. This way, the torsional action of the muscles is saved. A weakening of the horizontal rectus muscles was systematically added, making it a simultaneous horizontal and cyclovertical surgery. Our way to deal with strabismus developed into a coherent entity and the interest of colleagues encouraged us to write it down.We decided to publish a textbook with a theoretical and an extensive practical part. Our approach is based on thirty years of exclusive strabological work, half-time academic and half-time private practice. More than 6500 re sults were analysed and the majority have been published. The con cerned publications are referred to at the end of the first chapter. Private practice allowed to benefit from the fact that patients were operated on by the same surgeon and remained in personal contact during follow-up.




Fifth International Visual Field Symposium


Book Description

The 5th International Visual Field Symposium of the International Peri metric Society was held on October 20-23, 1982, in Sacramento, California, before the joint meeting of the International Congress of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. A majority of the members of the International Perimetric Society took part in the meeting together with many guests. The topics of the symposium were: glaucoma: correlation between the visual field and the optic disc; the visual field in low-tension glaucoma; neuro-ophthalmology and ergo-perimetry. Apart from this there were many papers on automated perimetry and general topics. The papers concerning the correlation of optic disc and visual field dealt with several aspects: peripapillary atrophy, defects in the retinal nerve fiber layer, fluorescein angiography and the characteristics of the glaucomatous excavation itself. New and interesting findings were presented showing that the careful, detailed observation of the disc and peripapillary area is re warding. The visual fields in low-tension glaucoma were studied extensively by four groups. Various approaches to the problem have led to some differences in results, which were extensively discussed. In the general glaucoma session the visual fatigue phenomenon was dis cussed extensively; apparently conflicting results were demonstrated re garding the stability of contrast threshold measurements during one and the same test session in glaucoma. The relationship between the visual field and the performance at the working place was considered in the session on ergo-perimetry.