The factors affecting surgical success rate for the patients with congenital esotropia

Objective.  To evaluate the factors and preoperative clinical features affecting surgical success rate in patients with congenital esotropia.  Method.  The medical files of patients who underwent surgery for congenital esotropia between June 2012 and September 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Data from the patients’ full ophthalmological examination included visual acuity, ocular alignment, duction, versions and sensory tests for binocularity, cycloplegic retinoscopy and fundus evaluation. Presence of previous ambliyopia treatment, fixation preference, cross-fixation, anisometropia >1.5D, ocular motility abnormalities were noted. The relationship of these variables with the surgical success rate was evaluated.  Results.  A total of 48 patients (25 female,52.1%) were included. The mean age of the patients was 4.4±5.2 years. Successful surgical outcome was achieved in 39 (81.3%). All the patients were followed for 14.1±4.4 months. There was no relation between surgical success and patients’ gender, positive family history, consanguinity, previous ambliyopia treatment, anisometropia, abnormal ocular motility and cross-fixation and mean cycloplegic refraction (p>0,05). However, fixation preference and mean preoperative deviation found to be related with surgical failure (p<0,05).  Conclusion.  In this study many variables such as epidemiologic characteristics and clinical features of patients were investigated for their possible association with surgical success rate. Only preoperative fixation preference without ambliyopia and mean preoperative deviation were found to be risk factors for the surgical failure in this group of patients with infantile esotropia.