Bilateral lateral rectus recession versus unilateral recession/resection for basic intermittent exotropia

Intermittent exotropia requires surgical resolution under some clinical circumstances. The main techniques are bilateral lateral rectus recession and unilateral recess/resection. Although bilateral recession is the most widely used, it is not clear whether it leads to better results.

To answer this question we used Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

We identified five systematic reviews including seven studies overall, of which three were randomized trials. We concluded unilateral recess/resection might achieve greater surgical success and probably decrease the rate of undercorrection/recurrence when compared to bilateral lateral rectus recession.