Acute-onset Concomitant Esotropia in Children: A Comparison of Clinical Features and Treatment Outcomes.

[PURPOSE] To evaluate and compare the clinical features and efficacy of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) injection versus surgery in acute-onset concomitant esotropia (ACE) in children.

[METHODS] This retrospective comparative clinical study was conducted on 40 children with ACE. The patients were assigned to either the surgery group ( = 23) or the BTX-A group ( = 17). Successful motor outcomes were defined as residual esodeviation of 5 prism diopters (PD), while successful sensory outcomes were defined as the presence of any evidence of sensory fusion or stereopsis.

[RESULTS] The average treatment age in this study was 7.02 3.72 years in the BTX-A group and 6.41 2.83 years in the surgery group. There were 5 cases of type I (12.50%), 26 cases of type II (65.00%), and 9 cases of type III (22.50%) for ACE. The deviation before treatment was +(41.35 16.90) PD at near and +(39.71 14.94) PD at distance in the BTX-A group. In the surgery group, the results were +(49.22 18.25) PD at near and +(47.00 18.53) PD at distance. After treatment, based on the measured deviation, total motor success was 95.00% (38/40) at near and 90.00% (36/40) at distance. Following treatment, 94.59% (35/37) of patients with ACE exhibited fusion, 86.84% (33/38) had near stereopsis, and 72.97% (27/37) had distance stereopsis. The motor and sensory success rates were not significantly different between the BTX-A and surgery groups. There were no statistically significant differences in motor outcomes or sensory outcomes among the three subtypes of ACE (all 0.05).

[CONCLUSION] In our study, type II was the most common clinical classification for ACE. Favorable outcomes could be achieved with both BTX-A injection and surgery. There was no difference in motor or sensory outcomes regardless of clinical classification. BTX-A injection is minimally invasive, allows early intervention, and may be the preferred approach for managing ACE in children.