Purpose: To evaluate the result of the surgical correction of esotropic patients with eccentric fixation and to compare it with operated on esotropic patients who did not have this sensorial disorder.
Methods: A retrospective study of the result of the surgical correction of essential esotropia in 19 patients with eccentric fixation of the "Santa Casa de São Paulo". As group controls, 17 esotropic patients with strabismic amblyopia and central fixation and 16 esotropic patients without amblyopia who had been operated on. The statistical test was application of variance for proportions (ANOVA).
Results: In the 3 studied groups undercorrection prevailed, 12 (63.2%) cases in group I, 13 (76.5%) cases in group II and 13 (81.3%) patients in group III. The surgical success occurred in 7 (36.8%) patients of the group with eccentric fixation, of whom 4 cases were overcorrected and 3 of orthotropia. In group II, of the 7 cases of surgical success, 3 (17.6%) had orthotropia and 1 (5.9%) case presented with overcorrection. In group III, we had 5 (31.3%) cases of surgical success, 1 (6.3%) of them with orthotropia. Among the 36 amblyopic patients, 5 (13.9%) presented overcorrection. The standard error of the average of the surgical correction was 4.6 in the group of patients with eccentric setting. ANOVA test for the average of the surgical correction was p=0.349. Considering the good result (a deviation smaller than 10delta), the statistical analysis revealed a p=0.847.
Conclusion: The eccentric setting did not represent a determinant factor in the surgical result (good versus bad) of the horizontal surgical alignment.