Stabismus developing suddenly

[sstabpro]

Hi,
I'm a healthy 27 year old female with no history of stabismus or diplopia before it occured to me a week ago suddenly. I did have a problem last month ago with a temporary face paralisis "bell's palsy" which was cured and i am fully recovered from it right now. The doctor said that it was cause by a virus to the 6th or 7th cranial nerve. The face paralysis occured to the same half of the face as the stabismus that is in my left eye. Basically i see double becaise the images don't align with the right "healthy' eye. Is it possible that this is temporary and it will go back to normal alignement? Or would I have to have a surgery? Does stabismus cause eye sight deficiency and damage? How can I treat it without a surgery? Right now I am doing a lot of tests MRI, brain scan, blood tests and possibly spinal tap to determin the cause of this problem. Should I be seeing an eye doctor as well?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear  sstabpro,

I would recommend that you seek the care of an eyeMD as well so that you can be followed for progression of the diploplia and strabismus.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

Yes, you should definitely see an ophthalmologist.  Start with a general ophthalmologist then a referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist may be in order.  The 6th cranial nerve nucleus is very close to the 7th cranial nerve so I suspect the same problem is the cause of the facial palsy (7th nerve) and the side by side (I'm making an assumption here) double vision that is worst when looking the side of the recent facial palsy.  The idea is to find the cause with special attention to inflammatory, vascular, infectious, and tumors as possible causes.  A major workup is in order and I encourage you to go to a major university hospital because I have seen cases like this turn out to be quite difficult to unravel unless the best teams of doctors are involved.  Many possible causes.  I'm sorry about your problems and I pray it turns out well.

MJK MD