Eye position of strabismus patients under general anesthesia.

We studied the change in eye position under general anesthesia in 317 patients undergoing strabismus surgery. We used the prism cover test to measure preoperative eye position, and the prism reflex test (Krimsky's method) to measure the eye position under general anesthesia. Almost all patients had divergence under anesthesia. We calculated a linear equation and curve to relate the eye position under anesthesia to the preoperative eye position. Patients with a normal amount of divergence (within one standard deviation of the mean) had a higher rate of successful surgical results than those with an abnormal amount of divergence under anesthesia (greater than one standard deviation from the mean).