Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Patients Operated for Strabismus at the Yaounde Central Hospital

Purpose: to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients operated for strabismus. Methods: records of patients operated for strabismus between 2014 and 2022 at the Yaounde Central Hospital were included in this cross-sectional study. Data collected included: age at onset, age at the time of surgery, sex, type of strabismus, preoperative angle of deviation at distance, number of eyes and muscles operated. Significance level was set at p <0.05. Results: 84 patients were included. There were 57 (67.9%) exotropias and 27 (32.1%) esotropias. Females were predominant, with no significant difference between exotropias and esotropias (70.4% in esotropias and 70.2% in exotropias). Early-onset strabismus was present in 88.9% of esotropias and in 57.9% of exotropias (p=0.0055). The mean age at the time of surgery was respectively 8.6 ± 8.6 years and 18.8±13.9 years for esotropias and exotropias. (p=0.00001). The mean pre-operative angle was 41.1 ± 9.5 prism diopters (PD) in esotropias and 40.2 ± 12.6 PD in exotropias. Surgery was done in both eyes in 82.1% of cases and at least on 2 muscles in 90.5% of cases. Conclusion: surgery for esotropia is carried out in late childhood and that for exotropia in late adolescence. Efforts geared towards sensitizing the public in view of early management of strabismus need to be made.