Effectiveness of treatment approaches for childhood exotropia: a systematic review.
Part-time occlusion plus OBVAT had the highest short-term success in childhood exotropia treatment
Effectiveness of treatment approaches for childhood exotropia: a systematic review.
Exotropia (XT), an outward ocular deviation, commonly affects children.
The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the evidence on the effectiveness, indications, and clinical outcomes of different treatment modalities for childhood XT.
The review protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under registration number CRD420251174532.
The final review included 34 studies from 11 countries, comprising 3,643 children with a mean age of 5.70 ± 2.24 years.
Multiple surgical and non-surgical options exist for managing childhood XT.
Overminus lenses can improve distance control during testing, but deviation typically return to original state with non-overminus lenses, and their use requires monitoring for possible myopic progression.
Surgery remains the primary treatment for constant XT, with bilateral lateral rectus recession and unilateral lateral rectus recession and medial rectus resection (R&R) showing similar short-term outcomes and long-term advantages for R&R.