2023 Volume 53 Pages 35-39
【Purpose】In 2009, Rutar and Demer reported strabismus caused by age-related orbital pleurisy degeneration as sagging eye syndrome (SES). The disease concept of SES has not become widespread in Japan, and many patients with this disease may not be treated because they are unaware of diplopia being the chief complaint of this disease. Many patients visited our hospital after watching a TV program on SES in February 2022, and their clinical characteristics were examined in this study.
【Subjects and Methods】 Subjects were patients who had visited our hospital between February and May 2022 with a chief complaint of unexplained diplopia or eyestrain and had been suspected of having SES. Their medical records were analyzed.
【Results】A total of 50 subjects (18 males and 32 females; age range, 44-93, mean age, 71±10 years) were included. The subjects' diseases included SES (distance esotropia with divergence paralysis and/or small-angle vertical rotation strabismus, 27 cases), non-SES (23 cases), intermittent external strabismus (6 cases), abducens nerve palsy (3 cases), Others (7 cases), and no strabismus (7 cases). Strabismus was observed in 86% of the subjects. Treatments for SES included prescribed prism glasses (17 cases), strabismus surgery (3 cases), and others (5 cases). Two patients did not wish to receive treatment. The treatment results showed disappeared diplopia in 19 cases, no changes in 3 cases, and 3 patients with discontinued hospital visits.
【Conclusions】The patients corresponded their symptoms with the visualized diplopia on TV, and this became an opportunity for them to visit ophthalmologists. In results, 86% of these patients who had visited our hospital after the TV program had strabismus and the diagnosis of SES made in 63% of these patients led them to aggressive treatments.
