Stage I intraoperative adjustment of eye muscle surgery under general anesthesia: consideration of graduated adjustment

Determinants of ocular deviation in esotropic subjects under general anesthesia

PURPOSE

The authors attempted to identify the determinants of ocular deviation in a population of patients with esotropia under general anesthesia.

METHODS

Forty-one patients with esotropia were included. Horizontal ocular deviation was evaluated by the photographic Hirschberg test both in the awakened state and under general anesthesia before surgery. Changes in ocular deviation were measured and a multivariate analysis was used to assess its clinical determinants.

RESULTS

The mean age (± standard deviation [SD]) of study subjects was 13 ± 11 years and 51% were females. The mean spherical equivalent refraction of the right eye was 2.44 ± 2.50 diopters (D), with no significant difference between eyes (P = .26). The mean ocular deviation changed significantly, from 33.5 ± 12.5 prism diopters (PD) at preoperative examination to 8.8 ± 11.4 PD under general anesthesia (P = .0001). The changes in ocular deviation positively correlated with the pre-operative ocular deviation (correlation coefficient r = 0.59, P = .0001) and negatively correlated with patient age (correlation coefficient r = -0.53, P = .0001). These two determinants remained significant after multivariate adjustment of the following variables: preoperative ocular deviation; age; gender; spherical equivalent refraction; and number of previous strabismus surgeries (model r(2) = 0.49, P = .0001).

CONCLUSIONS

The ocular position under general anesthesia was reported as a key factor in the surgical treatment of subjects with esotropia; therefore, its clinical determinants were assessed. The authors observed that preoperative ocular deviation and patient age were the main factors that influenced the ocular position under general anesthesia.

The effect of torsional muscle dysfunction and surgery on eye position under general anesthesia

Under general anesthesia, normal eyes exhibit 2.0 degrees to 2.5 degrees of extorsion. To investigate the effect of torsional muscle dysfunction and surgery on eye position under general anesthesia, we measured the torsional change before and after torsional muscle surgery in 26 eyes of 18 patients with clinical torsional muscle dysfunction. Under general anesthesia, compared with normals, eyes with preoperative intorter overaction or extorter underaction demonstrated a significant intorsional change (P < .01). However, eyes with intorter underaction or extorter overaction did not demonstrate a significant extorsional change. Postoperatively, while patients remained under general anesthesia, intorter weakening procedures produced measurable extorsion while intorter strengthening procedures and extorter weakening procedures produced measurable intorsion. Superior oblique tenotomy produced a greater net torsional change than inferior oblique weakening surgery (P < .01). Under general anesthesia, eyes with preoperative torsional muscle dysfunction exhibit torsion in the direction consistent with the dysfunction. After surgery on the torsional muscles, a measurable torsional effect can be demonstrated while the patient is still under general anesthesia.