Prematurity May Affect the Postoperative Sensory Results in Children With Strabismus.

Purpose: To analyze the motor and sensory outcomes of strabismus surgery in children born preterm (premature group) and full-term (control group).

Methods: The study was performed at a tertiary university hospital. Children who underwent strabismus surgery between 2012 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. The success of surgery, postoperative over-correction and undercorrection rates, and stereopsis and fusion test results were compared between the premature and control groups.

Results: There were 70 patients in the premature group (mean gestational age: 31.25 weeks; range: 24 to 35 weeks) and 242 patients in the control group. The amounts of preoperative and postoperative deviations and overcorrection, undercorrection, and success rates were similar between the premature and control groups ( > .05). Stereopsis improved from 560 to 300 arc/sec postoperatively in the premature group ( = .066) and from 1,156 to 685 arc/sec in the control group ( < .001). The rate of fusion increased from 12.5% to 25% in the premature group ( = .50) and from 17% to 47% in the control group ( < .001). The analysis of strabismus subgroups revealed significant improvement of fusion in full-term patients ( < .001) and not in preterm patients ( = .50) with esotropia. Preoperative amount of deviation was the only risk factor for surgical success ( < .001). Age, sex, history of prematurity, and spherical equivalent refraction were not correlated with undercorrection ( > .05).

Conclusions: Regardless of the type of strabismus, although the functional results after strabismus surgery were similar in preterm and full-term patients, the gain of stereopsis and central fusion was significantly higher in full-term patients compared to preterm patients. .