Strabismus is also called cross-eyes, lazy eye, turned eye, squint, double vision, wall eyes, floating, wandering, wayward, or drifting eyes. Associated medical terms are amblyopia, esotropia, exotropia, hypertropia, diplopia or cranial nerve palsy.
- Strabismus affects approximately 2-4% of the population in the U.S.
- This translates into approximately 1 in every 25 to 50 people whose eye turns to some degree at least part of the time.
- That’s 6 to 12 million people who have lived with eyes apart in the U.S. alone.
- A world wide estimate, based on the figures above, would be 130 to 260 million people affected by strabismus
Statistics based on reports by the National Eye Institute:
National Eye Institute Congressional Justification for FY 2006
National Eye Institute Vision in Preschoolers Study
The statistics don’t address that, I think most children have surgical correction by the time they are 9, and virtually never think about the problem again, and are never bothered by it again. So, are they included in those statistics, or do those statistics only include people who are currently or would be currently diagnosed as having strabismus, that is, those who didn’t have 100% successful surgery when they were young.