[Acquired oculomotor paralysis: a new therapeutic approach. Apropos of 10 cases].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this work is to report our rehabilitation scheme and outcome in patients with acquired oculomotor palsy.


METHODS
We cared for 10 patients with oculomotor palsy between January 1996 and March 1998 at the Casablanca University Hospital. Our orthoptic rehabilitation scheme was based on reinforcing the patient's sensorial potential using a prism dioper and motor capacities by soliciting vergency and version movements.


RESULTS
The 10 patients (7 males, 3 females, mean age 39.5 years) had unilateral IV palsy (n =3), bilateral IV palsy (n= 1), unilateral VI palsy (n= 2), bilateral VI palsy (n= 1), partial unilateral III palsy (n= 1) and dissociated bilateral III palsy (n= 2). Mean delay to initiation of rehabilitation was 49 days and mean duration for treatment was 3 months. We achieved total recovery in 50% of the cases and partial recovery in 40%. Intermittent diplopia persisted in 10 per thousand of the cases. These results differ slightly from those in the literature where total regression is reported in about 50% of the patients after therapeutic abstention.


CONCLUSIONS
This small series is insufficient to validate our method. The results obtained do however show that rehabilitation is safe and should be applied more widely in patients with oculomotor palsy.
El Mansouri
Y
Y
Service d'Ophtalmologie, Hôpital 20 Août 1953, CHU Ibn Rochd, Casablanca, Maroc.
Bentahar
H
H
Laouissi
N
N
Zaghloul
K
K
Amraoui
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009886:Ophthalmoplegia / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D009988:Orthoptics; D013997:Time Factors