eye health

Misaligned eyes - Causes and Symptoms

Related articles: Misaligned eyes

Definition

The misalignment of the eyes is one of the most characteristic symptoms of strabismus. This condition is characterized by a lack of convergence of the visual axes of the two eyes; it follows an evident deviation of the gaze: one eye can look straight ahead, while the other eye is turned inwards, outwards, upwards or downwards.

Strabismus is often determined by refractive defects (such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism) or by the lack of coordination between the eye muscles (which prevents us from directing the gaze of each eye to the same objective, hindering proper binocular vision and negatively influencing depth perception).

In some cases, however, the misaligned eyes indicate the presence of other problems. In normal conditions, in fact, in order to align both eyes in a coordinated way and focus them on a single objective, the correct functioning of eye muscles, cranial nerves (the nerve pathways that transmit information to the muscles) and brain centers must be guaranteed superior (the part of the brain that controls the movement of the eyes). The misaligned eyes, therefore, can be the result of a problem in one of these three levels of the visual system.

An unconjugated gaze is compatible with a lazy eye (amblyopia), orbital trauma, tumors (eg retinoblastoma) and other ocular pathologies. Convergence (or divergence) defects are particularly common among children with conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and spina bifida. Because of their nature, in fact, these conditions can affect muscle movement and body coordination. Other conditions that cause misaligned eyes are head traumas, cranial nerve paralysis, brain tumors and other neurological diseases. Stroke can also manifest itself with this symptom. Other causes of eye misalignment include some thyroid disease and diabetes.

Possible Causes * of misaligned eyes

  • Albinism
  • Amblyopia
  • Fanconi anemia
  • Astigmatism
  • Cataract
  • Diabetes
  • Stroke
  • farsightedness
  • Cerebral ischemia
  • Meningitis
  • Myasthenia gravis
  • Myopia
  • Graves' disease - Basedow
  • Retinoblastoma
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Down syndrome
  • Prader-Willi syndrome
  • Turner syndrome
  • Feto-alcohol syndrome
  • Strabismus