Objective: To study clinical characteristics and surgical treatment of idiopathic congenital nystagmus (ICN).
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 224 patients with ICN in Tianjin eye hospital from July 2007 to February 2013.
Results: There were 224 patients, 158 (70.54%) males and 66 (29.5%) females, mean age was (11.6±8.4) years and (11.4±6.4) years separately. Horizontal nystgamus happened in 215 cases, 3 cases were vertical type and 6 cases were mixed. 214 cases were with no history of operation and 10 patients had ever underwent surgeries before. Furthermore, 151 patients combined with strabismus and refractive error, anterior segment or retinal disorders, which accounting for 67.4% of all the patients. 48 patients were associated myopia, 30 patients with hyperopia, 43 patients with strabismus. Among them, 153 cases of compensatory head position direction were horizontal with face turn, 43 cases (43/153, 28.1%) showed face turning to the left, 110 cases (110/153, 71.9%) showed face turning to the right. Surgeries were designed according to the compensatory head position and head retroversion angle. For 15 patients with double intermediate zones, the position which was often used with good visual function was chosen for operation design. As for the patients with nystagmus and strabismus, the transfer null zone to primary position for the dominant eye and strabismus surgery for the other eye was chosen. And for complicated patients with compensative head position, the dominant head posture were designed for surgery.
Conclusions: ICN is dominated by male with variable clinical manifestations. Surgical choice for ICN depends on the direction of head position and if there is strabismus accompanying it.The aim of ocular muscle surgery is to transfer null zone to primary position. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2016, 52: 574-578).