PURPOSE: To evaluate, from the economic and technical point of view, the surgical treatment of strabismus. METHODS: A retrospective survey of available consecutive medical charts from the Altino Ventura Foundation - Recife/PE, Brazil was performed. Data on 100 patients who underwent strabismus surgery (from January of 2001 to February of 2003) and 100 patients who underwent cataract surgery (January of 2003) were analyzed. The times to performed these surgical procedures were observed. The times to accomplish strabismus surgeries were compared to those of cataract surgeries. In addition the variability of time among different strabismus surgeries was also observed. RESULTS: Surgical mean time for strabismus correction was longer than that for cataract surgery (77.3±27.6 min versus 58.3±12.7 min; p<0.0001). A significant variability in time to accomplish strabismus surgeries was also observed. In the case of intervention in up to two muscles, mean time was less than in the case of intervention in more than two muscles (66.0±16.6 min versus 97.5±31.7 min; p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Longer surgical time of strabismus surgeries as compared to cataract surgeries gives support to the idea that the medical remuneration for strabismus surgery should be, at least, equivalent to that of cataract surgery. In addition, the fact of surgical mean time being so variable, suggests that this procedure should have a different remuneration.
Strabismus; Strabismus; Fees, medical; Cataract extraction; Comparative study
