Is hypermetropia regressing in accommodative esotropia?

PURPOSES: To evaluate the relationship of changes in hypermetropia and ocular alignment in patients with accommodative esotropia.

METHODS

The medical records of consecutive patients diagnosed with refractive accommodative esotropia (esotropia eliminated or decreased to within 10 D with full hyperopic correction) were retrospectively reviewed. Cycloplegic refractions culled from medical records were converted into spherical equivalents. Presence of amblyopia, changes in refractive error and ocular alignment at admission and after the follow-up period were evaluated.

RESULTS

Seventy patients (mean age: 6.01 ± 5.41 years; female: 60.6%; mean follow-up: 5.8 ± 3 years) had corrected esotropia of 40 ± 20 prismatic diopters at admission. The average decrease per year in near and distance deviations with glasses was 1.71 ± 3.96 prismatic diopters/year and 1.09 ± 3.25 prismatic diopters/year, respectively. The total myopic shift of the right and left eyes was 1.08 ± 1.35 D and 1.20 ± 1.40 D, respectively. Myopic shift/year was 0.22 D/year and 0.26 D/year, respectively. The correlation between the rate of myopic shift and rate of change in corrected near deviation was weak. The correlation for the rate of myopic shift was not high for the right and left eyes (r=0.18; p=0.15).

CONCLUSION

The amount of deviation and hypermetropia gradually decreased in accommodative esotropia during follow-up. On the other hand, it may be incorrect to assure patients that the amount of deviation will decrease in parallel with the refractive error.