Photorefractive keratectomy for the treatment of purely refractive accommodative esotropia

Purpose: To evaluate the results of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) for the treatment of young adult patients with purely refractive accommodative esotropia. Setting: Private practice and university hospital, Milan, Italy. Methods: The medical records of consecutive patients who had PRK for hyperopia associated with purely refractive esotropia were reviewed retrospectively. Preoperative and postoperative visual acuity, alignment, and sensory data were recorded and analyzed. Surgical methods and complications were reviewed. Results: Sixteen eyes of 8 patients were treated. The mean patient age at the time of treatment was 24.6 years (range 17 to 38 years). All patients were followed for 1 year. At the 1-year follow-up evaluation, the uncorrected visual acuity was 20/40 or better in all eyes. No patient lost a line of best spectacle-corrected visual acuity. The mean spherical equivalent was -3.7 diopters (D) preoperatively and -0.7 D postoperatively. All patients were within ±0.37 D of emmetropia at the 1-year evaluation. Preoperatively, the mean esotropic deviation was 10.75 prism diopters. Postoperatively, all patients were orthophoric without correction. Stereopsis was unaffected by PRK in all patients. There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications. Conclusion: Photorefractive keratectomy was an effective treatment for esotropia associated with mild to moderate hyperopia in young adults with purely refractive accommodative esotropia. These findings should not be widely applied to children with accommodative esotropia.