Pathogenesis (development of disease)
The strabismus eye deviates from the visual axis. The cause of this is unknown in many cases. This results in different image information, which is compensated by suppression and shifting of the visual direction of the strabismic eye, otherwise permanent double images would be the result.
Typical secondary disease of strabismus is amblyopia (amblyopia; low vision).
Etiology (causes)
Biographic causes
- Genetic burden from parents, grandparents.
- Mother: smoking during pregnancy (OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.32-1.60)
- <10 cigarette (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.06-1.29)
- > 10 cigarettes (OR = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.39-2.31)
Behavioral causes
- Failure to wear glasses/contact lenses when vision is poor – for example, children with hyperopia (over-sightedness) tend to have strabismus convergens (inward squinting)
Disease-related causes
- Asphyxia – impending suffocation due to a decrease in arterial oxygen content (hypoxemia) and/or carbon dioxide accumulation in the blood (hypercapnia).
- Eye tumors such as retinoblastoma.
- Eye injuries
- Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)
- Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) – non-inflammatory retinal disease resulting from high oxygen pressure during artificial ventilation of premature newborns; all infants born before 31 weeks gestation should be screened for ROP.
- Ablatio retinae (retinal detachment).
- Brain trauma
- Corneal scars
- Cataract (lens opacity)
- Physical weakness, which may be caused by a wide variety of diseases or injuries
- Macular changes
- Coats disease (retinitis haemorrhagica) – rare congenital dilatation of the retinal vessels that can lead to fatty edema and retinal detachment (ablatio retinae).
- Retinopathies (retinal diseases)
- Severe myopia (nearsightedness)
- Condition after toxoplasmosis
Other causes
- Prematurity
