Acquired Comitant Esotropia in Children and Young Adults: Clinical Characteristics, Surgical Outcomes, and...

To describe the clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes of acquired comitant esotropia with symptomatic diplopia.

The clinical features and surgical outcomes of 27 patients with diplopia due to acquired comitant esotropia were retrospectively reviewed. Exclusion criteria were a history of prematurity, cerebral palsy, head trauma, or febrile illness before the onset of acquired comitant esotropia, incomitant strabismus, accommodative spasm, and divergence paralysis. Neurological evaluation and neuroimaging was normal in all patients.

Mean age at onset of esotropia and diplopia was 17.8 ± 10.3 years (range: 6 to 44 years). Eighteen patients had simple myopia (range: -0.25 to -7.75 diopters [D]), 5 patients had hypermetropia (range: 0.50 to 1.50 D), and 4 patients had emmetropia. The angle of deviation prior to surgery was 35.6 ± 10.3 prism diopters (PD) for far and 38.0 ± 10.5 PD for near fixation. Twenty-three patients (85%) were prism responders. A history of excessive near work (≥ 4 hours a day) with digital displays was present in 21 (78%) patients. Diplopia resolved and some level of stereovision was achieved in all patients postoperatively. Three patients had recurrence of esotropia in long-term follow-up.

The differentiation of a serious pathology from a straightforward optically or medically treatable condition in patients with a subacute or chronic history of diplopia is challenging for the clinician. The recognition of acquired comitant esotropia due to presumed intensive near activities with digital display may avoid time-consuming and costly laboratory investigations. Most of the patients in this series were prism responders and surgery for the prism-adapted angle was successful in restoring binocular vision. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2020;57(4):251-256.].