The Surgical Outcome of Intermittent Exotropia and the Prognostic Factors

Choi, Dong Gyu; Kim, Pyeong Sik

Abstract

Surgical results of intermittent exotropia have been reported variabiy according to the criteria of surgical success and the length of follow-up.There have been also controversies about the factors affect the surgical outcoine of intermittent exotropia The surgical outcome and the factors which may affect the surgical results were retrospectively investigated in 165 patients who had undergone surgery for intermittent exotropia with at least 6 months (average 16.6 months, range 6-60 months) of post-operative follow-up.A `satisfactory result` , defined as a final alignment of orthophoria,esotropia less than 5PD or exotropia less than 10PD at far primary position,was achieved in 123 patients (74.5%). The diplopia at. postoperative one day tended to ensure 8 more satisfactory result (P<0.05). The patients with initial postoperative undercorrection of more than 6PD presented 3 significantly negative influence on the surgical result (p=0.05). As the follow-up period increased, the satisfactory results were obtained less frequently due to the progressive exotropic drift (p<0.05). The other factors including age at. onset, age at, operation, types of interinittent exotropia, preoperative deviation angle, presence of vertical deviaiton, dissociated vertical deviation, inferior oblique overaction, and lateral incornitance did not contribute significantly to the surgical results(P>0.05).