The changes in refractive status following routine strabismus surgery.

The change in refractive status of an eye that has undergone muscle surgery appears to be due to cornea changes. While not all patients are affected, a moderate number will show enough change in astigmatism to cause a decrease in the visual acuity from a few letters to two lines difference. These changes, more commonly an increase in with the rule astigmatism, tend to disappear in time, although in an occasional patient they may persist. Such a change is especially noted when two nonadjacent recti muscles are operated on the same eye. One advantage in operating on the fixing eye is that of allowing a surgically induced amblyopic therapy to continue into the postoperative period. A noncycloplegic or "dry" retinoscopy seems to be a quick and effective way of determining the existence, though not the amount, of such a change in the refractive status.