title: VECP evidence for binocular function in infantile esotropia.
abstract: Since commonly used clinical methods of measuring binocular function require subjective responses, this testing has been limited to more cooperative children, usually older than 2 years of age. Recently, we have begun using a clinically practical, visually evoked cortical potential (VECP) method to detect the presence of binocular neurons in infants and young children. We studied 14 children, ages 4 to 44 months, with infantile esotropia. Nine had surgical correction for esotropia by the age of 2 years. Twenty-five normal infants ages 6 weeks to 22 months served as controls. Most normal infants showed the development of the "beat" by 2 months of age. The "sum" VECP was not consistently present until age 6 months. Four of the five esotropic infants less than 1 year of age, demonstrated neither a "sum" nor "beat" response. All nine patients with corrective surgery performed before 2 years of age developed a significant sum response and three developed a beat. Five patients had not had surgery until after 2 years of age. Two developed a sum and one a beat, but none had both beat and sum responses. The results suggest that there is a loss of nonlinear binocular response in esotropic children not corrected before the age of 2 years and that these responses can be restored after early treatment even if not present at the time of surgery.
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison.
authors: T D
authors: TD
authors: France
authors: J N
authors: JN
authors: Ver Hoeve
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D004948:Esotropia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles / Q000601:surgery; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology