Surgical outcomes of three different surgical techniques for treatment of convergence insufficiency intermittent exotropia

Purpose To determine the outcomes of three different techniques of strabismus surgery in patients with convergence insufficiency intermittent exotropia (CI-X(T)). Patients and methods Sixty-seven patients with CI-X(T) with near-distance disparity (NDD) ≥10 prism diopter (PD) were included in this 1-year follow-up prospective study and were randomly divided into three groups: slanted bilateral LR recession (S-BLR) group in which 22 patients underwent bilateral slanting recession of the lateral rectus (LR) muscle, the I-RR group with 23 patients who underwent improved unilateral medial rectus (MR) resection and LR recession with the amounts of resection and recession biased to near and distance deviation, respectively, and the A-BLR group with 22 patients who underwent bilateral augmented LR recession based on the near deviation. A successful outcome at distant and near was defined as exodeviation between 10 PD of exophoria/tropia and 5 PD of esophoria/tropia. Cumulative probabilities of success, preoperative and postoperative distant, near deviations, and NDD among groups were analyzed and compared. Results The success rate of distant exodeviation, near exodeviation, and NDD in the three groups after 1 year was statistically insignificant ( P =0.054, 0.233, and 0.142, respectively). At the 1 year follow-up, vertical pattern strabismus (V and A patterns) was a feature of the S-BLR group, whereas the rate of postoperative overcorrection and undercorrection was significant in the A-BLR and I-RR groups, respectively. Conclusion The success rate of correction of distant exodeviation, near exodeviation, and NDD was statistically indifferent among the three groups. However, each procedure has its specific postoperative concerns, which should be considered before implementing in patients with CI-X(T).