Peer-reviewed article
The effect of strabismus surgery on the learning abilities of school‐aged children
Vincent Feuillade, Tristan Bourcier, David Gaucher, Claude Speeg, Arnaud Sauer ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested whether surgery to correct strabismus (eye misalignment) improves learning in children aged 7-10 years. Children who had strabismus surgery showed faster reading speed and better drawing ability 3 months after surgery, compared to children whose surgery was delayed. Calculation ability did not improve significantly. The researchers used a control group to account for natural learning progress over time.
Key points
- Reading speed improved from 65.8 to 80.6 words per minute after surgery (p = 0.0038)
- Drawing scores improved from 71.1 to 84.3 after surgery (p = 0.012)
- Calculation ability did not significantly improve (p = 0.363)
- Improvements were larger in younger children and those with esotropia
- Control group of delayed surgery patients confirmed improvements were not just due to natural learning
Limitations
The study only followed children for 3 months after surgery, so long-term effects on learning are unknown. The sample size was relatively small (42 per group), and all participants were from France, which may limit generalizability.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate whether strabismus surgery improves the learning performance - calculation, reading and drawing - of school-aged children. METHODS: In a case-control study, patients between the ages of 7 and 10 years with horizontal strabismus, recommended for surgical correction, were prospectively included. Reading, calculating and drawing abilities were evaluated before and 3 months after corrective strabismus surgery using standardized tests. Cases were compared to control patients: patients with a surgical indication postponed due to the COVID lockdown. RESULTS: Forty-two operated patients and 42 controls between the ages of 7 and 10 years with horizontal strabismus were included. The average reading speed was 65.8 words per minute pre-operatively compared to 80.6 words per minute post-operatively (p = 0.0038). The average drawing score was 71.1 pre-operatively compared to 84.3 post-operatively (p = 0.012). The average calculation score was 3.2 pre-operatively compared to 3.4 post-operatively (p = 0.363). Improvement given by strabismus surgery was confirmed avoiding the learning effect by comparison with the control group. The improvements observed were more significant in the youngest patients and esotropia. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that strabismus surgery significantly improved the children's reading fluency and drawing task execution. These encouraging data should be taken into account when considering the indications for strabismus surgery.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Surgical correction of horizontal strabismus
- Population
- Children aged 7-10 years with horizontal strabismus requiring surgical correction
Key finding
Reading speed increased significantly from 65.8 to 80.6 words per minute (p = 0.0038)