Clinical assessment of visual function in the young child: a prospective study of binocular vision.

Binocular vision was evaluated in 12 children with infantile esotropia before and after corrective surgery. Stereopsis was measured by the eye movement/global stereopsis method. Also in a subgroup of four infants, binocular and monocular pattern VERs were recorded to evaluate binocular summation. Results revealed 50% of the infantile esotropia children who had corrective surgery before one year of life developed gross stereopsis two weeks following surgery. In addition, of four infants who showed no evidence of stereopsis, 50% showed some degree of binocular summation following surgery. The importance of prospective studies of binocular vision in infantile esotropia is discussed within the context of new tests that can be used to objectively assess binocularity in the preverbal child.