Effect of the Control Ability on Stereopsis Recovery of Intermittent Exotropia in Children

To explore the relationship between ocular position control ability and stereopsis recovery in children with intermittent exotropia, and to analyze the influencing factors of distance stereopsis recovery.

In this retrospective study, 78 children with small angle intermittent exotropia received vision training for 3 months. All patients were examined for distance stereopsis with the synoptophore and for near stereopsis with the Titmus stereogram before and after the training. The patients were divided into low and high Newcastle Control Score (NCS) groups. The stereopsis of the two groups was compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of distance stereopsis recovery.

Among 78 children with intermittent exotropia, 33 had near stereopsis (42.3%) and 22 had distance stereopsis (28.2%); the difference was significant (P < .05). After 3 months of training, there were statistically significant differences between distance and near stereopsis in the low NCS group and the high NCS group (chi-square = 7.127, P = .008; chi-square = 13.005, P < .001). The number of children with distance and near stereopsis in the low NCS group increased significantly compared with before training (chi-square = 13.471, P < .001; chi-square = 22.244, P < .001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age of onset (odds ratio [OR] = 3.768, P = .001), near point of convergence (OR = 0.347, P = .002), and NCS (OR = 0.142, P = .002) were risk factors that affected stereopsis recovery in children with small angle intermittent exotropia.

Control ability is one of the important indicators to assess the severity of intermittent exotropia. The worse the control ability, the more difficult the recovery of stereopsis. Age of onset, near point of convergence, and NCS are risk factors that affect the recovery of distance stereopsis. [.