Effect of Visual Acuity on the Surgical Outcomes of Secondary Sensory Strabismus

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the outcomes of secondary sensory strabismus surgery and to discuss the effect of visual acuity on success. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of patients with sensory strabismus who underwent recession-resection on the eye with vision loss were reviewed. Only patients with visual acuity of ≤0.2 in the operated eye were enrolled. Data including age at surgery, visual acuity, etiology of vision loss, preoperative and postoperative deviations, follow-up duration, and surgical outcomes were recorded. Success was defined as a final deviation of ≤10 prism diopters (PD). To evaluate the effect of visual acuity on postoperative success, patients were grouped as follows according to the visual acuity of the operated eye: group 1, visual acuity <0.05; group 2, 0.05-0.1; and group 3, 0.125-0.2. RESULTS: Ten females and 14 males met the inclusion criteria. The mean age at surgery was 21 years (range, 6 to 56 years). The mean preoperative deviation angle was 52.7 PD (range, 20 to 80 PD). Age at surgery, preoperative deviation and follow-up time were similar in patients with esotropia (n=7) and exotropia (n=17) (p>0.05 for all). The success rate was 62.5% at short-term and 42.1% at long-term follow-up. There was no statistically significant difference in short-term success rate among visual acuity subgroups (p=0.331), whereas the difference was statistically significant at long-term follow-up (p=0.002). The long-term success rate was higher in group 3 compared to groups 1 and 2. CONCLUSION: Better visual acuity seems to be a potential predictor for higher long-term success after strabismus surgery in patients with sensory strabismus.