title: Is the frequency of adult strabismus surgery increasing?
abstract: In recent years there has been an increase in evidence for the functional and psychosocial benefits of correcting strabismus/heterotropia in adults. This study aimed to establish whether there has been an associated change in the frequency of strabismus surgery performed on adults in England since 2000.
  
  
  
  Data on strabismus surgery performed in England between 2000 and 2014 were obtained from Hospital Episode Statistics, Health and Social Care Information Centre, England. The frequency of strabismus surgery was analysed for different age groups. Data were considered in the context of total population data for England, obtained from the Office for National Statistics.
  
  
  
  There was little change in the total number of strabismus operations performed in 2000-2014 (1% reduction). In the same period the number of operations performed on children aged 0-15 years decreased by 17%. In contrast, there was a 24% increase in the number of strabismus operations performed on patients aged 15 years or older.
  
  
  
  Although strabismus surgery is still most commonly performed on children, the data show there has been a significant increase in the number of strabismus operations performed on adults. We speculate that this increase is connected to the growing weight of evidence detailing the functional and psychosocial consequences of strabismus and the benefits of correction. These results have potential implications for the delivery of future care.
authors.affiliation: Visual Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Astle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, UK.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Foulsham
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Alexander J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Foss
authors.affiliation: Visual Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Paul V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: McGraw
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles / Q000601:surgery*; D013508:Ophthalmologic Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013285:Strabismus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D015348:Vision, Binocular; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: amblyopia; heterotropia; strabismus; surgery