Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate if orthoptic treatment had long-term effects on patients with intermittent exotropia, who received the treatment more than ten years ago in their childhood.
Methods: :
Subjects were 6 patients (age range, 18 to 25 years) with intermittent exotropia who received orthoptic treatment for exophoria maintenance at the Department of Ophthalmology, Kinki University Hospital between 1995 and 1998. All the subjects gave their consent to the study and underwent examinations including visual acuity, physiological diplopia, fusion amplitudes, stereopsis, maintenance of exophoria, eye position, angle of strabismus, and near point of convergence between October 2008 and February 2009. All patients received the orthoptic treatment in their childhood included training for binocular function such as fusion and anti-suppression exercises and convergence exercise according to the patient’s condition.
Results: :
Even after more than ten years, all the six subjects could maintain exophoria at all positions of gaze and at both near and distance. In addition, no patients were observed with suppression, and near point of convergence (average, 4.2 ± 0.9 cm) and fusional convergence amplitudes (average, 70.0 ± 16.7 PD) were also maintained. No subjective symptoms were reported. This indicated that the orthoptic treatment given in the childhood could have effects on visual function that even lasted till the adulthood in patients with intermittent exotropia.
Conclusions: :
Our investigation revealed that appropriate orthoptic training given in the childhood could maintain long-term effects on patient with intermittent exotropia.
Keywords: strabismus: treatment • strabismus • binocular vision/stereopsis