Surgical treatment of congenital nystagmus

  There are two broad categories of congenital nystagmus, one is impulsive nystagmus, which is mostly associated with cephalic position, i.e., skewed vision, and skewed vision is mostly better than orthoptic vision. Nystagmus mostly has resting eye position and most of the vision is better, which can be treated surgically to relieve the skewed head vision and strabismus. Cases with combined strabismus can be operated on at the same time. The procedure is also known as intermediate band shift, which moves the lighter position of the nystagmus to the front for the purpose of correcting the crooked head, and it is usually performed in both eyes at the same time. The surgical technique and results are relatively mature.  The other type of nystagmus is the perceptual deficit type. This type of nystagmus has no resting eye position, poor vision, and is often combined with other congenital eye diseases, such as congenital cataract, glaucoma, albinism, high myopia, and choroidal defect. This type of tremor previously had no treatment. In recent years, with the development of scientific and clinical research, certain advances have been made. Surgical treatment, i.e., proprioceptive resection, is now possible. The surgical results are mostly good, but do not completely resolve the tremor.  It helps with amblyopia training and vision restoration. A great deal of clinical research remains to be done. During my study at Wills Eye Hospital in the United States, I focused on this technique. Currently, as a new technology project this year, some cases have been operated, and the results of the surgery are relatively satisfactory, with some patients having one to two lines of improved vision compared to the preoperative period. The improvement in appearance is also obvious. Especially for nystagmus with strabismus, it can correct strabismus at the same time, and in some cases, it can also correct compensatory head position or skewed head vision at the same time, achieving a multi-functional effect.