About the instructor

Nathan W. A. Liles, MD, MPH is a pediatric ophthalmologist and adult strabismus surgeon. He is a clinical assistant professor at the Dean McGee Eye Institute and OU Health in Oklahoma City, where he cares for children with eye disease and for adults with strabismus, and teaches medical students and residents.

A native Oklahoman, he studied chemical engineering at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, graduating summa cum laude, and then earned his medical degree at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine along with a Master of Public Health. He went to Ann Arbor for his internship at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and stayed at the University of Michigan's Kellogg Eye Center for his ophthalmology residency and his fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus. He then spent five years on the Kellogg faculty before coming home to Oklahoma in 2025.

Teaching surgery is a large part of what he does. He teaches adjustable-suture surgery in the skills lab at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, and StrabHero grew out of the library of strabismus surgical videos he has been building for students, residents and fellows. He is fluent in French and conversational in Spanish.

Why this site

Strabismus surgery is learned one case at a time, usually from the far side of the table, and usually without a chance to see the same step twice. Much of what makes a case go well happens in small moves that are hard to put into a textbook and easy to show on video: where the hook goes, how the assistant holds the eye, what the needle looks like when it is at the right depth in sclera.

StrabHero is built around those moves. Most lessons pair an edited surgical video with short written notes: the key steps in order, a few pearls, the pitfalls worth knowing about before you meet them, and further reading. Where it helps, the same operation is shown twice, once from the primary surgeon's view and once from the assistant's. The technique follows the tradition set down in Del Monte and Archer'sAtlas of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Surgery, which the lessons cite by chapter and page.

The courses are free. There are no accounts and nothing to sign up for; your progress through the lessons is kept in your own browser. The site is written for residents, fellows and practicing surgeons, and it is not medical advice for patients. Please read the disclaimer.

StrabHero is a personal teaching project. It is not an official publication of, and is not endorsed by, the Dean McGee Eye Institute, OU Health, the University of Oklahoma or the University of Michigan.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections and requests for a particular procedure are welcome. For now the best way to reach him is through hisYouTube channel. New lessons are added as videos are edited.