title: Adjustable sutures in strabismus surgery: a personal series of cases.
abstract: A personal series of 77 separate primary adjustable suture procedures performed on 69 patients is analysed. Adjustable suture surgery was performed on patients over ten years of age undergoing rectus muscle surgery, and a few selected younger patients. The ages ranged from 7 to 74 years. A 24-month-old infant who had a two-stage-anaesthesia is included in the series. Thirty-eight of the 69 patients were reoperations. Of the 77 primary procedures, 48 (62.3%) required postoperative adjustment; 29 (37.7%) were tied down without adjustment. Sixty-two of the 69 patients (89.8%) achieved a "cure". A further four patients (5.8%) were initially in desired alignment, but deteriorated within the follow-up period. Three of these were successfully reoperated. Of the three primary failures (4.4%) two were reoperated with one achieving orthophoria. Apart from alignment failure in the primary procedure, complications were minimal. Current follow-up periods range from one to 24 months.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004948:Esotropia / Q000601:surgery; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005099:Exotropia / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008875:Middle Aged; D013285:Strabismus / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013536:Suture Techniques / Q000592:standards