Study of postoperative changes in ocular alignment in surgically corrected esotropia

Background Esotropia (ET) represents an ocular alignment disorder characterized by the eyes’ inward deviation. Aim This work aimed to compare changes in postoperative ocular alignment at 6 weeks as well as 6 months following the surgical procedure among cases, who were initially surgically adequately corrected for ET, and to determine if preoperative characteristics are correlated with these changes in ocular alignment. Patients and methods Our prospective clinical trial study involved 30 patients aged between 1 and 40 years, who developed comitant ET and had not undergone any strabismus surgery before. Results A positive weak association (r=0.406) was documented between the age of ET onset and the 6th month postoperative alignment. The age of onset of ET in both groups (infantile and partially accommodative ET) showed a significant difference ( P =0.001). The differences in alignment between 1st week and 6th week and between 1st week and 6th month were significant ( P <0.001). Mean change in alignment at 6th week postoperatively was significantly different between amblyopic cases and nonamblyopic cases ( P =0.012). The age of onset of ET and the degree of preoperative ET less than 50 prism diopters (PD) showed a significant difference between the successful versus unsuccessful cases at the 6th month postoperative ( P =0.002 and 0.031, respectively). Conclusion The higher age of ET onset (nearly above 2.5 years) and the lower preoperative angle of deviation (below 40 prism diopter) are associated with a slightly better surgical outcome at the 6th month postoperatively.