Comparison of Surgical Results by Initial Postoperative Alignment Following Bilateral Lateral Rectus Recession and Unilateral Lateral Rectus Recession-Medial Rectus Resection in Intermittent Exotropes

ABSTRACT

We attempted to predict the success, undercorrection, overcorrection rate at postoperative 1 year by examining alignment at postoperative 1 day and find out the relationship between alignment of postoperative 1 day and 1year. Forty-six patients with intermittent exotropia underwent bilateral lateral rectus recession at Keimyung university, Dongsan medical center and fifty-seven patients underwent unilateral medial rectus resection and lateral rectus recession at Catholic university, St.Mary`s hospital. The alignment at postoperative 1 day was classified as the overcorrected with 11-20PD, the overcorrected with 1-10PD,the orthotropia, and the undercorrected with residual exotropia of 1-10PD. There was a statistically significant relationship between alignment at postoperative 1 day and 1 year in unilateral medial rectus resection and lateral rectus recession and bilateral lateral rectus recession (r=0.74, r=0.51, p<0.05). Those patients who were overcorrected 1-20PD had a significantly higher success rate than those undercorrected 1-10PD at postoperative 1 day (p<0.05). In the unilateral medial rectus resection and lateral rectus recession group,postoperative 1 day alignment of 1-10PD resulted in the highest success rate of 73.7%. In the bilateral lateral rectus recession group,postoperative 1 day alignment of 11-20PD showed the highest success rate of 76.9%. There were no significant differences in the success rate,undercorrection rate, and overcorrection rate between the two kinds of surgery at postoperative 1 year. As a result, the alignment at postoperative 1 day can be one of the predictive factors of future surgical outcome. The initial postoperative overcorrection of 11-20PD in bilateral lateral rectus recession and overcorrection of 1-10PD in unilateral medial rectus resection and lateral rectus recession can lead to good results.