Non-surgical Management Options of Intermittent Exotropia: A Literature Review

PURPOSE: To review current non-surgical management methods of intermittent exotropia (IXT) which is one of the most common types of childhood-onset exotropia. METHODS: A search strategy was developed using a combination of the words IXT, divergence excess, non-surgical management, observation, overcorrecting minus lens therapy, patch/occlusion therapy, orthoptics/binocular vision therapy, and prism therapy to identify all articles in four electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus). To find more articles and to ensure that the databases were thoroughly searched, the reference lists of the selected articles were also reviewed from inception to June 2018 with no restrictions and filters. RESULTS: IXT is treated when binocular vision is impaired, or the patient is symptomatic. There are different surgical and non-surgical management strategies. Non-surgical treatment of IXT includes patch therapy, prism therapy, orthoptic sessions, and overcorrecting minus lens therapy. The objective of these treatments is to reduce the symptoms and the frequency of manifest deviation by decreasing the angle of deviation or enhancing the ability to control it. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence of the efficacy of non-surgical management options for IXT is not compelling. More comprehensive randomized controlled trial studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness of these procedures and detect the most effective strategy.