Managing Strabismus: a hand book for optometrists. The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to create a compact hand book on the subject management of strabismus. The target group was working optometrists with different backgrounds and experience. The matters discussed in the hand book require previous knowledge of the subject and therefore it is intended mainly for practitioners.

We gathered information about optometrists’ current knowledge of strabismus by sending a questionnaire to 60 optician stores. 23 subjects provided us with information upon which we decided on the content of the hand book. We chose to focus on the causes and management of strabismus and therefore the examination and measuring of deviations are not part of this thesis, nor are the many aspects of phoria. We addressed the central concepts of strabismus i.e. etiology and classifications of deviations as well as the general anatomy and physiology of the eye. Moreover, we discussed different ways of treating the conditions; optical and orthoptic treatment, surgical management, medical treatment and the use of Botulinum toxin.

We were interested in knowing which factors affect the optometrist’s decision to examine a strabismic patient or perhaps letting someone else (a colleague, an ophthalmologist) do the job. We found that both the respondents with a lot of experience (30 - 44 years) and those newer in the field (1-14 years) examined and ordered appropriate treatment at quite the same rate. We also discovered that there are not that many patients with strabismus at Finnish optometrists’ appointments. Quite surprising was the fact that additional education did not increase the tendency to independently treat strabismic patients.

Unfortunately, due to the small amount of participants, we were not able to draw any conclusions in general. However, the years of experience seemed to be of great importance when dealing with strabismic patients. It also seemed that the recently gathered knowledge at school and perhaps enthusiasm at the beginning of one’s career is as important as experience when deciding on examining and treating the patient.