Surgical Outcomes of Exotropic Duane Retraction Syndrome From a Tertiary Eye Care Center

Purpose: To report surgical outcomes of patients with exotropic Duane retraction syndrome. Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records from patients with exotropic Duane retraction syndrome who underwent strabismus surgery and had at least 2 months of postoperative follow-up was conducted. Surgical success was defined as a postoperative horizontal deviation within 8 prism diopters (PD), abnormal head posture (AHP) less than 5 degrees, and a two-step decrease in overshoots. Results: Seventy-three patients with exotropic Duane retraction syndrome (38, 52% male, mean age 14 +/- 7.9 years) met the study criteria. Unilateral type 3 Duane retraction syndrome was seen in 56 (77%) patients and type 1 in 14 (19%) patients. The mean follow-up period was 22 weeks (range: 8 to 209 weeks). Unilateral and bilateral lateral rectus recession were performed in 48 (65%) and 25 (34%) patients, respectively. In addition to recession, a lateral rectus Y-splitting was performed in 42 (56%) patients. Five patients underwent differential medial rectus and (larger) lateral rectus recession to alleviate severe globe retraction. The mean primary position reduced from 23 PD (CI: 19.6 to 26 PD) preoperatively to 9 PD (CI: 7.02 to 11.02 PD) postoperatively (P < .0001). Postoperatively 50% of patients were orthotropic in the primary position. Surgical success for primary position deviation, AHP, and overshoots were achieved in 74%, 81%, and 71% of patients, respectively. Conclusions: In the current study, type 3 Duane retraction syndrome was the most common subtype necessitating surgery for exotropic Duane retraction syndrome. Good surgical outcomes were obtained for various indications. Unilateral or bilateral lateral rectus recession was successful in improving motor alignment and AHP. The addition of lateral rectus Y-splitting corrected overshoots greater than grade 2 in most patients with exotropic Duane retraction syndrome.