Why Surgery May Be Recommended
Surgery is typically recommended when non-surgical approaches, such as eyeglasses or patching, have not corrected the misalignment to a degree that allows the eyes to work together. It is also the primary treatment for infantile esotropia (eyes that cross inward in early infancy), where achieving alignment before age two gives the child the best chance of developing binocular vision, the ability to use both eyes together as a team.
Other reasons surgery may be recommended include:
- A deviation angle large enough to prevent the eyes from working together
- Strabismus that glasses cannot adequately correct
- Risk of amblyopia (lazy eye) if alignment is not restored
- Loss of stereopsis, which is the ability to perceive depth