Efficacy of botulinum toxin injection versus bilateral medial rectus recession for comitant esotropia: a meta-analysis.

[OBJECTIVE] To compare the effectiveness of botulinum toxin injection (BTX) and bilateral medial rectus recession (BMR) in the treatment of comitant esotropia.

[METHODS] An exhaustive search of the literature from Pubmed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases was carried out until April 2022. No language restrictions were applied. The literature was rigorously screened against eligibility criteria. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

[RESULTS] A total of 9 articles with 1100 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Three studies compared the effects of BTX to BMR on infantile esotropia, five studies compared the effects of BTX to BMR on acute acquired comitant esotropia, and one study compared the therapeutic effects between BTX and BMR for partially accommodative esotropia. Our pooled results showed that BMR achieved higher overall success rate compared with BTX (OR, 0.49; 95%CI, 0.37-0.64; P < 0.001) and patients subjected to the BTX procedure had higher overall rate of undercorrection (OR, 2.27; 95%CI,1.71-3.02; P < 0.001). No statistical difference in the overall overcorrection rate was observed between the two groups (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.17 ~ 1.03, P = 0.06). Further analysis found that BMR was more effective for infantile esotropia compared to botulinum toxin injections (OR, 0.40; 95%CI, 0.27-0.57; P < 0.001). Nevertheless, the same effect was observed for BMR and BTX in the treatment of acute acquired comitant esotropia (OR, 0.97; 95%CI, 0.50-1.87; P = 0.93).

[CONCLUSION] The present meta-analysis indicated that the BMR procedure achieved a higher success rate and a lower undercorrection rate in patients with comitant esotropia. However, BTX demonstrated similar treatment effects to BMR surgery in the treatment of acute acquired comitant esotropia.