Extraocular muscle resection, recession length and surgery outcome modelling in strabismus treatment: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: Many surgical formulas have been developed and proposed based on the experience of surgeons to improve the predictability of strabismus surgery. However, the consent among strabismus surgeons regarding the dose effect of the extraocular muscle (EOM) recession or resection was not achieved yet and the disagreement about the appropriate amount of strabismus surgery still exists. OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to propose an instrument for EOM resection (RsL) and recession length (RcL) estimation before the surgery and second to elaborate an postoperative angle of deviation (PAD) predictive model using simple potential predictors. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The analytical prospective clinical study was conducted from April 2016 to July 2019, on a sample of 216 patients (aged between 2–58) with concomitant strabismus who underwent strabismus surgery in Clinical Republican Hospital ‘Timofei Mosneaga’and Children Hospital ‘Em Cotaga’ from Republic of Moldova. The correlations of patients’ age, strabismus type, amblyopia degree, RsL, RcL, preoperative angle of deviation (PreAD) with PAD were estimated using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis, multicollinearity analysis and residual analysis were performed. RESULTS: The EOM RsL was predicted using strabismus type, patient’s age, PreAD and EOM RcL. EOM RcL, in turn, was estimated by the similar covariates set, instead of RcL being RsL. PAD modelling showed the PreAD, EOM RsL and EOM RcL predictive ability for strabismus surgery outcome prediction. CONCLUSION: In our study, we propose four mathematical models as potential instruments for EOM RsL, EOM RcL and PAD modelling in esotropia and exotropia surgery.