A recent study compared the therapeutic effects of surgery following prism adaptation test with surgery alone in acute acquired comitant esotropia (AACE). While the two approaches had therapeutic benefit for the rare pediatric presentation, the combination treatment showed more benefits in improving binocular function and reducing recurrence rate.

Of 46 patients with AACE, 26 underwent surgery following prism adaptation test and 20 patients underwent surgery alone. The study found both treatment approaches provided significant success rates 12 months post-treatment (96.15% for the combination group vs. 90.00% in the surgery-only group). The postoperative distant and near deviation angles in the two groups were significantly lower than before surgery, and the number of patients with stereopsis post-op in the two groups were significantly higher than before surgery. However, the number of patients with stereopsis and central stereopsis in the combination group was significantly higher (84.62% vs. 55.00%).

The researchers found that the recurrence rate in the combination group was obviously lower than that in the surgery group (3.85% vs. 15.00%), but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The researchers suggest the small study population and short follow-up limit the impact of the results.