ABSTRACT
It is the purpose of this study to compare the postoperative results of surgery for 39 patients with exotropia under 25 prism diopters (PD). Two surgical methods were done; 8 to 9mm unilateral recission of the lateral rectus muscle in 17 patients (unilateral gruop) and 4 to 6mm bilateal recession in 20 patients (bilateral group). The preoperative deviations on the average were 20.8PD in unilateral and 22.6PD in bilateral grou, and postoperatie corrections on the average were 16.5PD in unilateral and 22.8PD in bilateral group. The 41.2% in unilateral droup and 59.1% in bilateral group were under +/-5PD in postoperative deviation. There were 12 cases (70.6%) in unilateral and 20 cases (90.9%) in bilateral group showing the amount of deviation less than 10PD of under or overcorrection. InBilateral group, higher success rate was observed, but there was no statistical difference (p=0.053) between the two groups. The limitation of abduction was observed in the 4 cases of unilateral group but there was no significant cosmetic problem. From our surgical results, the outcome of the bilateral recission for the lateral rectus muscle is better than that ofthe unilateral recession for the correction of exotropia under 25PD although there was no statistical difference.