Disconjugate eye movements in children are a type of ocular deviation, or abnormal eye movement. The eyes of a child with disconjugate eye movements will move independently of one another. A number of medical conditions ranging from congenital disease to poisoning can cause disconjugate eye movements.
Type
The most common type of disconjugate eye movement in children, according to eCureMe, called strabismus, can cause two different types of movement: esotropia and exotropia. Strabismus occurs in approximately 2 percent of children, optometrist Ted Montgomery states, and may occur intermittently or constantly. In esotropia, one eye turns inward towards the nose while the other looks straight ahead. In children with exotropia, one eye looks outward while the other looks straight ahead. Disconjugate eye movements can also cause both eyes to turn inward or outward or to look in two different directions.
Cause
Most cases of disconjugate eye movements in children are congenital. Esotropia occurs more commonly as a congenital condition than exotropia, Dr. Montgomery reports. Newborns also often have fleeting moments of disconjugate eye movements. Head trauma, brain illnesses such as meningitis or encephalitis, cancer in the eye called retinoblastoma or an orbital tumor can all cause disconjugate eye movements, the Lippincott Manual of Nursing reports.
Symptoms
In addition to the visible misaligned eyes, other symptoms of disconjugate eye movement include diplopia, or double vision, blurred vision, nystagmus, rapid eye movements from side to side or headache. Headache from brain tumors often is worse in the morning. Behavior changes, memory loss and confusion may also accompany brain tumors, the Lippincott Manual of Nursing states.
Treatment
Treatment depends on the cause of disconjugate eye movements. Treatment of strabismus that doesn't resolve spontaneously often involves patching the "good" eye to force the eye that deviates to be used for vision, which hopefully prevents functional blindness from developing in the eye. Functional blindness occurs in amblyopia, when the brain "turns off" vision to the deviated eye to prevent mixed signals in the form of double or blurred vision. This results in blindness in the eye, even through vision in the eye is perfectly normal. Glasses or surgery to shorten the eye muscles to align the eye may also help strabismus. Cancers, trauma and brain infections all require specialized treatment, which can include antibiotics for infection and surgery for tumors. Trauma may require lowering the intracranial pressure inside the skull.
Consideration
Disconjugate eye movement in children most often occurs because of a fairly common and treatable condition called strabismus. Disconjugate eye movement that develops suddenly, either with or without history of trauma, needs prompt medical evaluation, since the cause could be serious.
