title: Surgical treatment of congenital esotropia.
abstract: We conducted a retrospective study of 133 children (69 boys and 64 girls) who underwent bilateral medial rectus muscle recession (most by the augmented or en-bloc technique) for congenital esotropia. Esotropia was diagnosed before the age of 6 months in 84 patients and after the age of 6 months in the other 49. A total of 27 children underwent surgery before the age of 12 months; of these, three required second procedures. A total of 106 children underwent surgery after the age of 12 months; of these, eight required second procedures. The mean preoperative deviation was 40 prism diopters. Two patients had significant A pattern deviations and 17 had significant V pattern deviations. Six patients had dissociated vertical deviations. Five to 60 days after surgery, 52 patients had no deviation and 99 were within +/- 10 prism diopters of no deviation. Two months after surgery, 67 patients had no deviation and 114 were within +/- 10 prism diopters of no deviation. Final alignments (five months to seven years postoperatively) showed that 51 patients had no deviation and 109 were within +/- 10 prism diopters of no deviation. Despite adequate alignment, none of 13 patients whose esotropia was diagnosed before the age of 6 months, who underwent surgery before the age of 12 months, and who cooperated with testing achieved stereopsis. This suggested that there may be two types of congenital esotropia--one without fusion potential and one in which fusion is possible but lost secondarily because of peripheral esotropic factors.
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D004948:Esotropia / Q000151:congenital* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles / Q000601:surgery; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013285:Strabismus / Q000151:congenital*; D014792:Visual Acuity