The algorithm of diagnosis and surgical treatment of Brown’s syndrome

Abstract

Introduction. Brown’s syndrome (BS) is a rare type of unconcomitant strabismus, which is often interpreted by practicing ophthalmologists as a paralytic form. The difficulty of diagnosis is due to the similarity of clinical manifestations with a number of other oculomotor disorders. This leads to a late, and most importantly, tactically incorrect choice of surgical treatment method. Purpose: Development of an algorithms for differential diagnosis and surgical treatment of Brown syndrome. Materials and methods. The authors analyzed the experience of diagnosing and treating 99 patients with Brown’s syndrome. The follow-up period was 13 years, from May 2010 to May 2023. Among the examined patients, 35 (35 %) were male and 64 (65 %) were female. The median age was 7.19 ± 0.87 years, the oldest at the time of the study was 45 years old, and the youngest was 1.5 years old. All patients underwent standard ophthalmologic and strabismal examinations. In patients of verbal age, the nature of vision was examined (Worth test, Bagolini test, double Maddox test). All operated patients underwent a cyclotorsion test intraoperatively under general anesthesia to confirm the diagnosis and choose a surgical method. Surgical treatment was carried out in 60 cases of unilateral and 5 cases of bilateral BS (a total of 65 patients aged 2 to 45 years; 69 eyes). Tenotomy and tenectomy of the superior oblique muscle (ECM) were performed in 53 cases, prolongation and recession with prolongation of the ECM in 16 cases. Results. Clinical signs have been systematized, algorithms for differential diagnosis and surgical treatment have been developed, which make it possible to timely identify Brown’s syndrome and carry out stage-by-stage pathogenetically based surgical treatment. The results are presented in the form of sequential action schemes (algorithms) that will help practitioners in making a diagnosis and determining the correct tactics of surgical treatment. Conclusions. Brown syndrome has characteristic differential features and requires staged surgical treatment. Developed algorithms to obtain high functional and cosmetic results.