The outcome of strabismus surgery in patients with Graves’ Ophthalmopathy without prior orbital decompression

The purpose of this study was to review the results of strabismus surgery in patients with strabismus secondary to Graves’ Ophthalmopathy without prior orbital decompression and to identify the factors which can possibly influence the outcome of surgery. In all cases, binocular Single Vision (BSV) in primary- and reading position was restored. 76.9% had an excellent outcome. Additional prisms were needed in 23.1% of the cases. 15.4% needed more than one surgical procedure to restore BSV. Preoperative factors like age, sex, duration of Graves’ Ophthalmopathy, orbital irradiation, number of muscles operated on, number of operations, deviation and intra-individual asymmetry in duction limitation between both eyes, had no significant influence on the final outcome in our study. However, two preoperative factors appeared to have an influence on the outcome of surgery. Patients who still needed prism correction to regain BSV had significantly more limitation of abduction preoperatively (p=0.024). In cases of more than one surgical procedures, significantly more different muscles were recessed (p=0.001).