Esodeviations or esotropia is when either eye is turned in, also known as cross eyed. One of the eyes may be focused directly on an object while the other eye is turned in or crossed. There are different types of crossed eyes. The congenital, or infantile type usually presents itself by six months of age. The eyes are very highly crossed and quite obvious to the parent and the physician. In these patients the eye that is grossly turned in will not develop properly and the reduction of vision is known as amblyopia. The patient often times has a family history of this condition.

Another type is due to a need for glasses known as a refractive error. These patients are far sighted and often times correcting the refractive error will eliminate the crossed eye.

In some patients even with a full correction the eyes still may remain crossed particularly if the problem was not caught at an early enough age. In some patients the eye that is looking straight ahead alternates from one eye to the next. This is known as an alternating strabismus, or crossed eye.

The treatment in all cases is to correct any refractive error with glasses and to treat the reduction of vision known as amblyopia with patching of the good eye. The younger the patient the greater the success of correcting the amblyopia with simple patching. For this reason four is a good age to have children examined particularly if there is a family history of a lazy eye. In some patients who have a persistent crossed eye even after correction then surgery can be performed to realign the eyes. Patching of the good eye to maintain good vision in the other eye in some patients keep until age nine or eleven.