Surgical outcomes of intermittent exotropia according to exotropia type based on distance/near differences

We compare the surgical outcomes of intermittent exotropia of the basic, pseudo-divergence excess (pseudo-DE) and true divergence excess (true DE) types. A study was performed with 342 patients who had undergone surgery for intermittent exotropia of the basic, pseudo-DE or true DE type with a postoperative follow-up period of 6 months or more. The main outcome measures were postoperative angles of deviation at distance and near, and surgical success rates. Surgical success was defined as alignment between exodeviation of 10 PD and esodeviation of 5 PD at distance and near. Additionally, survival curves of recurrence were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method. The postoperative angles of deviation at both distance and near in pseudo-DE type were significantly smaller than those in basic type at the final examination (p = 0.003, <0.001). The final surgical success rate in pseudo-DE (70.2%) was better than in basic (46.3%) or true DE (28.6%) (p = 0.003, 0.01). Reoperation for recurrent exotropia was performed in 27% of the basic, 17% of the pseudo-DE, and 35.7% of the true DE cases. According to a survival analysis for recurrence, patients with pseudo-DE showed lower incidence of recurrence than did patients with basic and true DE (p = 0.003, 0.02). In conclusion, the patients with intermittent exotropia of the pseudo-DE type showed better surgical outcomes than those with the basic or true DE type. Pseudo-DE also showed a lower recurrence rate than did the other 2 groups.