Strabismus in children with cerebral palsy.

A group of 238 patients with cerebral palsy were identified of whom 108 could be studied through their charts. Only 20 of these patients had strabismus. Of this group, 10 received no surgical therapy. In these patients followed up to a period of four years, no evidence of significant change in the strabismic deviation was found. Patients who were treated by medical and optical means alone did not show evidence of improvement. Surgical therapy was effective in providing a cosmetically acceptable result. Surgery was performed between two and one-half and 13 years of age in eight patients, with an average age of surgery of 6.5 years. The results which we obtained are comparable to those obtained by others at an earlier age. It does not appear that the age of surgery affects the ultimate cosmetic nor functional outcome in children with cerebral palsy.