Surgical management of chronic complete sixth nerve palsy.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVE

to evaluate the results of strabismus surgery in patients with chronic complete sixth nerve palsy.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

the patients with negative traction test underwent full tendon vertical rectus muscle transposition, whereas the patients with positive traction test had medial rectus recession and transposition surgery. Traction sutures were used in patients with deviations greater than 65 prism diopters (PD) in addition to medial rectus recession.

RESULTS

the mean age of 6 female (35.3%) and 11 male (64.7%) patients was 45.1 ± 20.5 years (range: 13 to 80 years). The average preoperative and postoperative deviations at the primary position were 64.1 ± 14.3 PD (range: 45 to 85 PD) and 9.6 ± 17.6 PD (range: 0 to 75 PD), respectively, with an overall success rate of 76.5%.

CONCLUSION

most of the patients with chronic sixth nerve palsy could achieve good ocular alignment with a surgical approach that is tailored according to the needs of the individual patient.