Postural Patterns of the Subjects with Vergence Disorders: Impact of Orthoptic Re-education, a Pilot Study

Aim: Vergence insufficiency is a common oculomotor disorder which causes visual but also general, and even postural symptoms. This study aimed to characterise postural control of subjects with isolated vergence disorder and assess whether orthoptic therapy affects it.

Method: Vergence disorders were evaluated and treated by orthoptists. Postural control quality was measured before and after orthoptic therapy in different conditions to study the role of vision, fixating distance, binocular vision and ocular dominance.

Results: Before orthoptic therapy, we recorded less body sway when subjects had their eyes closed than when they had their eyes open, and also less sway for the binocular condition when compared with monocular viewing conditions. This is opposite to well-known normal behaviour. Moreover, no distance or ocular dominance effect was found. After orthoptic therapy, our subject’s body sway was less when they had their eyes open than with their eyes closed and less when they looked at near fixation. No difference was found between monocular and binocular viewing conditions, but a small advantage of ocular dominance was found for one parameter.

Conclusion: We conclude that subjects with vergence disorders show postural behaviour that is not characterized by the normal regularities observed in healthy subjects. Orthoptic re-education may have contributed to promoting such regularities. Further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.