levoversion
Levoversion is a version to the left, a synchronous movement of both eyes in the same direction toward the patient's left.1,2
The right medial rectus and the left lateral rectus drive levoversion, and the two muscles are yoke muscles. Under Hering's law the pair receives an equal and simultaneous flow of innervation.1 Levoversion also shows how the muscles cooperate differently in versions and vergences. The left lateral and right medial rectus contract together in levoversion, while both medial recti contract in convergence.1
More detail
Levoversion forms the second step of the stepwise workup of a right hypertropia, after the first step narrows the cause to four muscles. If the right eye is higher in levoversion, the cause may be a right superior oblique palsy or, with the left eye hypotropic, a left superior rectus palsy.2
Sources (18)
- von Noorden and Campos, Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility, ch. 4
- Color Atlas of Ophthalmology (2009), ch. 13
- Leigh, R. and Zee, D. (2015). The Neurology of Eye Movements. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Purves, D., Augustine, G., Fitzpatrick, D., Hall, W., LaMantia, A., McNamara, J. and White, L. (2014). Neuroscience. 5th ed. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.
- Rutstein, R. and Daum, K. (1997). Anomalies of Binocular Vision: Diagnosis & Management. St. Louis: Mosby.
- intechopen.com: 1157694 secondary
- American Academy of Ophthalmology: bcscsnippetdetail.aspx?id=0aafb0a4-d35d-40c5-b823-a9d6e312a3
- EyeWiki: Strabismus_Surgery,_Cyclovertical
- Oxford Academic: 355224295
- PubMed Central: PMC9673616
- PubMed Central: PMC2719191
- PubMed: 18393937
- medicine.uiowa.edu: glossary-eye-terms secondary
- Medscape: 1189759-overview secondary
- EyeWiki: Extraocular_Muscles
- IOVS: article.aspx?articleid=2124775
- IOVS: article.aspx?articleid=2335250
- openi.nlm.nih.gov: detailedresult?img=PMC2719191_jkms-24-708-g003&req=4
Reviewed October 2026