[Clinical features of 31 cases with bilateral Duane's retraction syndrome]

To summarize the clinical features of 31 cases with bilateral Duane's retraction syndrome (DRS) and discuss its differential diagnosis.

We retrospectively summarized 31 cases with bilateral DRS from 1979 to 1996. Its clinical features including chief complaints, age and sex distribution, types of presentation, defects in abduction and adduction, retraction of the globe, upshots and downshots in abduction, etc. were analyzed.

There were 14 males and 17 females with a female-to-male ratio 1 : 0.8. The chief complaints comprised 14 cases (45%) with ocular motility disorders and 10 cases (32%) with ocular deviations. The most common form of the syndrome was type 1 (29 cases, 94%), the remaining 2 cases (6%) with type III. Its clinical features consisted of retraction of the globe with narrowing of the palpebral fissure in attempted adduction, limitation in abduction with variable extent also in adduction, and upshot and/or downshot of the affected eye during adduction.

In atypical cases, the retraction of the globe in adduction was not obvious and the diagnosis of DRS must be differentiated from the following ocular motility disorders, namely, abducens nerve palsy, Möebius syndrome, congenital oculomotor apraxia and congenital or infantile esotropia.