Wandering Eye Syndrome

According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), 4 percent of Americans have strabismus, or misalignment of the eyes. One type of misalignment, called wandering eye, causes one eye to not focus and look in the opposite direction from the other eye. Wandering eye typically develops in children but also occurs in adults from injuries or other problems that affect how the eye focuses.

Cause

• Wandering eye is caused by the abnormality of an eye's neuromuscular control. When a person looks at an object, one eye is not able to focus, causing the eye to drift off in another direction.

Risk Factors

• Children commonly develop wandering eye. It may occur randomly when a child is perfectly healthy, or due to conditions that affect the brain, such as Down syndrome, a brain tumor or cerebral palsy. In adults, wandering eye is caused by stroke, neurological issues, Graves disease or trauma to the brain, the nerves that control eye movement or the eye muscles.

Symptoms

• Symptoms of wandering eyes include eyes that do not stay aligned when a person looks at an object, uncoordinated eye movements and vision loss in the affected eye. People may also experience double vision or lose the ability to perceive depth.

Treatment

• According to AllAboutVision.com, treatment for wandering eye includes vision therapy, which uses exercises or devices to correct the affected eye. Devices used to correct eye focus include a patch over the good eye, which forces the affected eye to strengthen its muscles. Eyeglasses are also used.

  If vision therapy does not improve the eye's ability to focus, eye muscle surgery can correct the eye's focus.

Complications

• Left untreated, wandering eye can become permanent. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it can also cause amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye, which reduces a person's ability to see details.