Long-Term Results of Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Surgery for Basic-type Intermittent Exotropia in Turkish Patient

Aim: To evaluate the long-term results of symmetrical (i.e., bilateral lateral rectus recession) (BLR rec) and asymmetrical (i.e., unilateral medial rectus resection and lateral rectus recession) (R-R) surgical treatment of patients with a diagnosis of basic-type intermittent exotropia (X(T)).

Methods: The patient folders of a total of 65 patients with basic-type X(T) who visited the Ankara Ulucanlar Eye Education and Research Hospital Eye Clinic Strabismus Unit between January 2004 and January 2013 and underwent strabismus surgery were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were evaluated according to the applied surgical method: patients treated using the BLR rec method (Group 1= 25) and patients treated using the R-R method (Group 2= 40). During the last examination after the first postoperative year, a deviation ±10 prism diopters (PD) was defined as successful. A 10-20 PD deviation was considered partially successful, and a PD of 20 or higher was considered unsuccessful. Controls were completed postoperatively after the 1st week, the 1st month, the 3rd month, and the 6th month and at 6-month intervals thereafter.

Results: The success rates were found to be 80.0% successful, 17.5% partially successful, and 2.5% unsuccessful in the R-R group and 44% successful, 32% partially successful, and 24% unsuccessful in the BLR rec group. The difference between the success rates of the groups was statistically significant (p=0.04).

Discussion: We found that the R-R method achieves more successful results than the BLR rec method in patients with basic-type X(T).