Do you know the name of this disorder?

Question

A friend of mine has an eye problem I've never seen before. Although his eyes go in the same direction they don't focus on what he's looking at, or at least that's what I gather. He's never looked me in the eye and from what I can tell he'll never be able to. It's like when he's looking at you his eyes are several inches off to the side. He watches movies and I don't understand how, and he replies to emails with the help of something, I'm a little unclear if it's a computer program or what. He rides his bike and goes about his business with no obvious problems so it's not completely debilitating.

He told me what it was called, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I want to say star-something. I've been trying to look it up online but I'm coming up with nothing, I don't even know where to begin. I want to ask him more about it, but it's a tender subject and I don't want to press the issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks. :)

Answer 1

I think what you are looking for is Exotropia.

Stargardts disease in a disease of the macula, and doesn't affect outward appearance of the eyes.

EDIT...***

OOPS, I missed that sentence about both eyes going in the same direction. Where did I put my reading glasses ?

Answer 2

Try looking up Stargardt's Disease. .  

Answer 3

I agree with the first answer. Stargardt's disease causes severe dysfunction at the level of the macula. So in other words your friend's "central vision" is extremely poor. To get around this problem, he uses his peripheral vision instead which explains why he never looks directly at you.

I'm not so sure about the "exotropia" answer as you state that both eyes go in the same direction, which doesn't seem to support this diagnosis.

Stargardt's disease is just one form of macular dystrophy, but as you think it's called "star-something", I'd say that's correct.