Fixation-linked nondissociated hypotropia: a report of 3 cases

Fixation-linked hypotropia, or hypotropic dissociated vertical deviation, is a rare but well-defined ocular motility disorder characterized by a slow downward drift of a poor-seeing eye when the other eye is fixating on a distant target. It can be successfully treated with a large recession or recession-resection of the inferior rectus muscle. We report 3 cases of fixation-linked nondissociated hypotropia with unilateral high myopia and amblyopia presenting with intermittent hypotropia of the worse-seeing eye when the dominant eye was fixating on a distant target and a hypertropia of the dominant eye when the poorer-seeing eye was made to fix. We discuss the surgical management of one of these patients.