Long-term surgical outcomes of patients with consecutive exotropia.

Abstract

To evaluate the long-term surgical outcome of patients with consecutive exotropia. Patients who underwent surgery for the treatment of consecutive exotropia between January 2008 and July 2016 with a minimum follow-up period of 2years were retrospectively reviewed. Surgical outcomes were classified based on postoperative angle of deviation at 2years as follows: success (esodeviation ≤ 5 prism diopters [PD] to exodeviation ≤ 10 PD), and recurrence [exodeviation > 10 PD]). Postoperative angles of deviation at 1week, 1month, 6months, 1year, and 2years and at the final follow-up were investigated. A total of 37 patients (28 in the success group and 9 in the recurrence group) were included. Surgical success rate at 2years was 75.7%, and reoperation rate was 10.8% during a mean follow-up period of 42.4 ± 18.3months after consecutive exotropia surgery. After surgery, exodrift occurred mostly during 1-month follow-up in both groups, and those with no exodrift within 1month presented a higher surgical success. Thereafter, patients in the success group showed a more stable course during follow-up than those in the recurrence group. Stereopsis was an important factor associated with surgical outcome. Exodrift occurs mostly within 1month after surgery for consecutive exotropia. Targeting initial overcorrection and establishing esodeviation at postoperative month 1 is important to achieve successful results.