Slanted Bilateral Lateral Rectus Recession Versus Conventional Bilateral Lateral Rectus Recession for Convergence Insufficiency Intermittent Exotropia in Children

Using conventional surgical procedures, higher postoperative near undercorrection and/or distant overcorrection rates were observed in CI-IXT. To achieve better outcome, S-BLR was introduced. Previous studies showed its efficacy in reducing near exodeviation, distant exodeviation, and NDD. So far, only limited studies have directly evaluated the surgical outcomes between S-BLR and C-BLR. The pilot study done by Snir et al included 12 patients with S-BLR and 6 patients with C-BLR and the success rates of S-BLR vs C-BLR were 92% vs 0 at one-year follow-up. The retrospective study done by Song et al included 17 patients undergoing S-BLR and 14 patients undergoing C-BLR. With stricter successful criteria, the success rates of S-BLR vs C-BLR were 35% vs 7% at six-month follow-up. A large randomized trial is needed to compare the surgical successful rate and suboptimal surgical outcomes of S-BLR with C-BLR in children with CI-IXT.

The proposed trial will be conducted in 6 different study sites working in the field of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.Each site will have one certified surgeon to do all surgeries. Under general anesthesia, the LR recession is performed using an inferior-temporal fornix incision. For S-BLR, the lower horn of the LR is recessed based on near exodeviation and the upper horn is recessed based on distant exodeviation. For C-BLR, the LR is recessed based on distant exodeviation. Surgical dose is according to the largest preoperative exodeviation at distance (6 meters) or near (1/3 meter) by the prism and alternate cover test(PACT). The extent of the recession is based on Parks' surgical dosage schedule.