ABSTRACT
Purpose
Identify demographic and clinical characteristics at the first presentation associated with later having surgery for intermittent exotropia (IXT).
Methods
Retrospective cohort study of 228 children with IXT and 5+ years of follow-up. Demographic and clinical data were extracted from medical records. A total 97 participants who underwent surgery during follow-up were compared to 131 participants who did not. Best subset regression was used to identify first visit variables associated with later having strabismus surgery. Surgery was then regressed on the selected variables using logistic models.
Results
Age and control were the only first visit variables significantly associated with having surgery for IXT. Notably, neither angle of deviation nor stereopsis were associated with later surgery. In an adjusted logistic model, each one-month increase in age at presentation was associated with a 1% decrease in the odds of having surgery (OR = 0.991, 95% CI: 0.982–0.999, P = .04). Children with poor control at initial visit had almost five times greater odds of having surgery than those with good control (OR = 4.95, 95% CI: 2.31–10.98, P < .0001).
Conclusions
Age and control of IXT are important factors at presentation associated with future surgical intervention for IXT. The magnitude of deviation and stereopsis was not significantly associated with future surgical treatment for IXT.
Data availability statement
The data are not publicly available to protect patient confidentiality.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2576117X.2021.2000284.