Common forms of childhood esotropia

Objective: To determine the most common forms of childhood esotropia. Design: Prospective, consecutive, observational case series. Participants: All esotropic children younger than 11 years of age from a pr edominantly rural Appalachian region evaluated from August I, 1995 through July 31, 1998. Methods: Demographic and clinical data were collected for all patients. Main Outcome Measures: The percentage ratio of the various forms of childho od esotropia. Results: Two hundred twenty-one consecutive children without prior surgical treatment were evaluated for esotropia. One hundred seventeen (52.9%) of t he 221 children had some form of accommodative esotropia, 38 (17.2%) were a ssociated with congenital or acquired abnormalities of the central nervous system, 23 (10.4%) displayed acquired nonaccommodative esotropia, 15 (6.8%) resulted from ocular sensory defects, 12 (5.4%) had confirmed congenital e sotropia, seven (3.2%) had paralytic esotropia, and an unverified age at on set prevented an accurate categorization in the remaining nine (4.1%), Conclusions: Children with accommodative esotropia accounted for more than half of the study patients and were diagnosed nearly 10 times more frequent ly than children with congenital esotropia. Esotropic patients with central nervous system defects or with an acquired nonaccommodative deviation were also more common than children with congenital esotropia. Children with co ngenital esotropia or with a paralytic or sensory cause of their deviation were relatively uncommon. (C) 2001 by the American Academy of Ophthalmology .