Long-term outcomes of prismatic correction in partially accommodative esotropia

Purpose: In partially accommodative esotropia (PAET), prism glasses can correct small angles of residual esotropia but the long-term effect of prismatic correction alone without surgery has not been reported. We aimed to investigate the long-term outcome of prism glasses after full hypermetropic correction for PAET. Methods: This retrospective, case-control study was performed for children aged 10 years or younger with a residual esotropia of ≤ 20 prism diopters (PD) after full hypermetropic correction who were fitted with prism glasses and followed-up for 3 years or more. Clinical characteristics and the angle of esodeviation were obtained at each follow-up examination. Successful motor outcome after 3 years of prismatic correction was determined if the residual angle of esotropia after full hypermetropic correction was ≤ 10PD. Patients who eventually weaned off prism glasses were noted. Results: Among 124 patients, 30.6% achieved success and 7.3% weaned off prism glasses after 3 years of prism-wear. Smaller amount of latent esodeviation (P = 0.001) revealed by prism adaptation and good fusional response at near with the Worth 4-dot test were significant prognostic factors of success by multivariate analysis (P = 0.033). After 3 years of wearing prism glasses, the rate of improvement in stereoacuity was higher in the Success group (60.5% vs 27.9%) (P = 0.001), however, there was no significant difference between the prism-weaned group and prism-wearing group within the Success group (P>0.05). Conclusion: Prism glasses for small angle PAET can be a treatment option in patients who have a small angle of latent esodeviation revealed by prism adaptation and good sensory fusion at near. Otherwise, early surgery may be advisable as the majority of patients showed suboptimal outcome even after long-term prism-wear.