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Neonatal misalignment signals normally developing vergence system

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Occasional neonatal misalignment in newborns reflected a normally developing vergence system in a study conducted at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, London. Lack of neonatal misalignments may signal later visual defects, especially hyperopia, the study suggests.

Anna Horwood, MD, and fellow researchers carried out a 15-year postal survey on 214 healthy infants who were children of female orthoptists.

“Orthoptist mothers observed their own infants during the first months of life and regularly reported ocular behaviour and alignment, visual development and any subsequent ocular abnormalities,” the study authossrs reported in BJO Online.

Outcomes showed that later strabismus and refractive error were less common in infants who experienced neonatal misalignment (NM) occasionally than in those who never or frequently did.

“There was a significant linear trend for fewer ocular abnormalities to be found in children with more frequent NMs,” the authors reported. Children who developed hypermetropia showed their first convergence later than emmetropes or hyperopes (P = .006).