Survey of Surgical Management in Intermittent Exotropia

Purpose: To obtain an overview of the surgical practices for the management of intermittent exotropia among experienced surgeons.Methods: We conducted a survey of members of the Korean Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, who had experience of > 15 years in strabismus surgery, via e-mail. Surgical methods for basic-type intermittent exotropia, angle of deviation for determining the surgical dose, reasons for surgical dose adjustment, and the postoperative target angle of deviation were analyzed.Results: Bilateral lateral rectus recession was preferred over unilateral recession and resection for basic-type intermittent exotropia with or without a dominant eye. The preoperative maximum angle of deviation was preferred for determining the surgical dose by 56% of the participants. Two-thirds of the participants preferred to reduce the surgical dose in specific circumstances, lateral incomitancy being the most common reason. In case of true divergence excess-type intermittent exotropia, 47.7% of the participants reduced the surgical dose. The most preferred target angle of deviation at 1 day postoperatively was 11-15 prism diopter esodeviation, as reported by 40% of the participants.Conclusions: Although experienced surgeons had different surgical preferences for intermittent exotropia, a general trend was found. This survey may be a useful reference for beginners in strabismus surgery.