Treatment of partly accommodative esotropia with a high accommodative convergence-accommodation ratio

We conducted a prospective, randomized, masked comparison of two treatments for the nonaccommodative element in esotropic patients with a high accommodative convergence-accommodation ratio. One group received symmetric medial rectus recessions with posterior fixation sutures; the other received symmetric medial rectus recessions without posterior fixation sutures but augmented according to formula taking into account the near deviation. Previous experience had suggested that our surgical formula based solely on the distance deviation would lead to excessive undercorrections. A higher percentage of the augmented recession group achieved satisfactory alignment and were able to discontinue wearing bifocals postoperatively than the posterior fixation group. The data also showed a trend (though not statistically significant) suggesting that more members of the augmented recession group were able to discontinue wearing spectacles entirely. We concluded that the posterior fixation suture technique is not as effective as the augmented recession technique for the treatment of partly accommodative esotropia with a high accommodative convergence-accommodation ratio.