Results of surgical treatment of intermittent divergent strabismus

Inasmuch as surgery is often suggested as the primary treatment for intermittent exotropia, we undertook an extensive literature search to ascertain the outcome of this treatment. Surprisingly, only 22 papers were located which gave presurgical and postsurgical results for intermittent exotropia using reasonably clear success criteria. Many other papers were located but were excluded because they either failed to state the criteria used, lumped exotropia and esotropia together in their reported successes, or used orthoptics along with surgery. The total number of cases reported in the 22 acceptable papers was analyzed in terms of four levels of success to permit comparison across studies. These four levels were: functional success, motor alignment, cosmetically acceptable, and unsuccessful (no change or worse). The data are tabulated and summarized.