Purpose:The purpose of this cross-sectional observational study was to determine the distribution and patterns of refractive errors, strabismus, and amblyopia in children seen at a pediatric eye care.Materials and Methods:The study was conducted in a Private Hospital in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from March to July 2013. During this period, a total of 1350 children, aged 1–15 years were seen at this Center's Pediatric Ophthalmology Unit. All the children underwent complete ophthalmic examination with cycloplegic refraction.Results:Refractive errors accounted for 44.4% of the cases, the predominant refractive error being hypermetropia which represented 83%. Strabismus and amblyopia were present in 38% and 9.1% of children, respectively.Conclusions:In this clinic-based study, the focus was on the frequency of refractive errors, strabismus, and amblyopia which were considerably high. Hypermetropia was the predominant refractive error in contrast to other studies in which myopia was more common. This could be attributed to the criteria for sample selection since it was clinic-based rather than a population-based study. However, it is important to promote public education on the significance of early detection of refractive errors, and have periodic screening in schools.

Excellent IOP control can be achieved in a majority of patients with equally effective results from all 3 surgical procedures. The surgical outcome of PCG was more favorable in infants presenting before the age of 6 months. Adjuvant topical antiglaucoma medications can augment the surgical success rate.

Horizontal rectus muscle surgery tended to induce a transient, statistically significant change in the spherical equivalent of refraction, with a myopic shift that was clinically not important. Our findings did not strongly support that the astigmatism induced changes. There was no correlation between the amount of recession and/or resection and the amount of induced refractive error.

Variation in IOP by gender, age group and type of refractive error was not statistically significant. The observations need confirmation by study with larger sample representing Saudi population.