Survival analysis of adult and children intermittent exotropia using a matched case-control design

To compare the surgical outcomes of adult intermittent exotropia (X(T)) patients and matched control children X(T) patients including survival analysis. Fifty-two adult X(T) patients and 129 matched control children X(T) patients were included. Clinical characteristics, survival analysis, and surgical dose-response curves were evaluated and compared between the two groups. The weighted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used in order to find risk factors for the recurrence. Using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, the cumulative probability of survival rate considering recurrence as event of Adult group were 93.97% for one year, and maintained at 88.44% for two, three. four, and five years after surgery. In contrast, those of the Child group were 83.6%, 76.5%, 65.6%, 56.23%, and 40.16% for one, two, three, four, and five years after surgery, respectively. The Adult group had a better event-free survival curve than the Child group as analyzed by a Log-rank test (p = 0.020). According to multivariate weighted Cox regression analysis, the younger age at operation and the larger preoperative angle were significant risk factors for recurrence.