Binocular vision

strabismus

Abstract

The capability of a tridimensional knowledge of the space (stereopsis), which results from the anteriorization of the visual axes during the phylogenesis is critically discussed, and the consequences of the superimposition of the visual fields (diplopia, confusion and suppresion) are explained. For a normal function of the binocular vision it becomes necessary an oculomotor system which guarantees an adequate ocular position to any object of visual attention, that is, may give adjusted (conjugate) ocular movements. The components of such a system (nerves, muscles and their actions), its laws and the modalities of compensation, as well as its failures (strabismus) and the associate visual impairments (amblyopia, abnormal visual correspondence, lesions of afferent pathways) are analysed. At last, the types and nomenclature, etiopathogenesis and treatment of the oculomotor unbalances (strabismus and heterophorias) are described.