ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to report the surgical results in a consecutive series of 80 children treated for intermittent exotropia using bilateral lateral rectus muscle recession as primary surgery. Patients and Methods: Restrospective chart review for age at initial surgery, type and amount of deviation, initial refraction, motor alignment on 1st postoperative day, at one week, 6 months and at the last visit were done. Results: Sixty nine (86.3%) of the patients were successfully aligned at six months by initial surgery performed for a mean of 31.2 6.5 prism diopters of preoperative deviation at a mean age of 6.6 years. At six months follow-up 11 patients were labelled as having surgical failure, with all having under correction. Mean follow up was 17.7 months. Esotropia on day one and one week post operative visit (P .005) was predictive of successful result. Conclusion: Successful alignment was achieved in majority of children by initial surgery using bilateral lateral rectus muscle recession. Postoperative esotropia during the 1st week was correlated with successful alignment at 6 months visit.
