Two years results of unilateral lateral rectus recession on moderate intermittent exotropia

BACKGROUND: This survey was performed to determine the effect of unilateral lateral rectus recession in treatment of moderate angle intermittent exotropia. However, this type of operation and its long term results in patients with moderate angle exotropia have not yet been studied in Iran. METHODS: Forty patients with basic type intermittent exotropia with moderate angle deviation (25-30∆D) were included in this study. All patients underwent unilateral lateral rectus recession (8 mm) in the relatively non-dominant eye. Patients were visited and examined after operation, 1 day, 1 week and 1 month later and then, every 6 months up to 3 years. Data were analyzed by t-paired test. RESULTS: Before operation all patients had 25-30∆D basic type intermittent exotropia. Two months after operation perfect orthophoria was observed in 33 (82.5%) subjects, ≤5∆D undercorrection in 4 (10%) patients and 6-10∆D undercorrection in 3 (7.5%) ones. At the last visit, findings included perfect orthophoria in 30 (75%) patients, ≤5∆D undercorrection in 5 (12.5%) subjects and 6-10∆D undercorrection in 5 (12.5%) patients. Preoperatively, none of the patients had fine stereopsis, 25 patients had moderate to good stereopsis and 15 patients had fair to poor stereopsis. Postoperatively, the data were changed to fine stereopsis in 18 patients, moderate to good in 18 patients and fair stereopsis in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study indicated high effectivity of unilateral lateral rectus recession on moderate angle intermittent exotropia.