Assessment of Different Types of Strabismus Among Pediatric Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in Jeddah

Background Strabismus, also known as squint, is an ocular disorder in which the eyes do not align properly with each other when looking at an object. The estimated global prevalence of strabismus among children is between 1.3% and 5.7%. This study aimed to assess the various types of strabismus among pediatric patients in Jeddah, in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Methods The medical records of 281 patients with strabismus aged ≤18 years, who presented to the pediatric ophthalmology clinic in King Abdulaziz University Hospital between 2010 and 2019, were retrospectively reviewed. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant. Results Out of the 281 patients, 141 were (50.2%) female. The average age of the patients was 9.50 ± 4.24 years. The most common type of strabismus was esotropia (177 [63%] patients), followed by exotropia (96 [34.2%] patients), hypertropia (10 [3.6%] patients), and dissociated vertical deviation (four [1.4%] patients). Two-hundred thirty-one (82.8%) patients had bilateral strabismus. A total of 178 patients (63.3%) had no associated conditions with strabismus, whereas 103 (36.7%) had an associated condition. A significant relationship was observed between esotropia and prematurity (p = 0.024). Conclusion Esotropia was the most common type of strabismus among the patients, followed by exotropia. The results of this study showed that males were equally affected as females. We also found a significant relationship between esotropia and prematurity. Implementation of a compulsory nationwide pediatric ophthalmic screening program for children aged one, three, and five years is recommended to enable timely diagnosis of strabismus and any other refractive errors.