Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Year
: 2008  |  Volume : 56  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 167--168

Spontaneous late-onset comitant acute non-accommodative esotropia in children


Pramod Kumar Pandey, Pankaj Vats, Navjot Kaur, Ajit G Kulkarni 
 Guru Nanak Eye Centre, Maulana Azad Medical College, University of Delhi, New Delhi - 110 002, India

Correspondence Address:
Pramod Kumar Pandey
Guru Nanak Eye Centre, Maulana Azad Medical College, University of Delhi, New Delhi - 110 002
India




How to cite this article:
Pandey PK, Vats P, Kaur N, Kulkarni AG. Spontaneous late-onset comitant acute non-accommodative esotropia in children.Indian J Ophthalmol 2008;56:167-168


How to cite this URL:
Pandey PK, Vats P, Kaur N, Kulkarni AG. Spontaneous late-onset comitant acute non-accommodative esotropia in children. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 2008 [cited 2024 Mar 29 ];56:167-168
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?2008/56/2/167/39134


Full Text

Dear Editor,

We read with interest the article by Kothari, on acute non-accommodative esotropia (ANAET). [1] We appreciate the author's efforts in attempting to find a simple solution to a complex and often perplexing problem, usually referred to as acute acquired comitant esotropia (AACE) in the literature. On occasions it may be the sole presenting feature of serious neurological disease, creating a serious diagnostic dilemma. We feel it is pertinent to make the following observations on this abstruse entity.

Accommodative esotropia can present till the teens and could be refractive, non-refractive, hypo or partially accommodative and coexist in infantile esodeviation, Duane's, Mobius syndromes and even in intermittent divergent squint. A near distance disparity of less than 10 prism diopters (PD) only implies normal AC/A ratio, it does not rule out accommodative deviation. It is not known as to how the accommodative component was ruled out, there can be partial response to glasses in AACE even in cases harboring central nervous system (CNS) pathology. [2] The concept of ANAET and its five distinct sub-types seems to be the author's own and does not seem to serve any purpose. The classification given by Burian and Miller in 1958 enjoys wide acceptance, grouping AACE into three distinct types. [3] Vision records (aided, unaided) and influence of glasses on deviation were not known. Nine patients had refraction in the range of more than 3 diopters (seven hypermetropes and two myopes) which could fall into accommodative, partially accommodative or Burian Franceschetti and Bielschowsky types of AACE. Anisometropia (one case), decompensated monofixation syndromes, high AC/A ratio and low fusional divergence amplitudes (not evaluated) could have contributed to AACE in others.Amazingly, none complained of diplopia. The high incidence of amblyopia was also intriguing, including 4 grouped as ametropic ambylopia as most have refractive errors (There is no perspicacity in the literature as to when to neuroimage, as isolated AACE may be the sole presentation of a CNS lesion. [4]

We have seen amongst others, a 12-year-old child harboring diffuse silent intracranial tuberculomas, presenting as AACE in addition to subtle signs of alternating adducting hypertropia and paradoxical asymmetrical intorsion, recovering completely on anti-tubercular treatment. Acute acquired comitant esotropia accompanying neurological disease has underpinnings of a skew deviation, with the horizontal component manifesting as AACE due to anomalies of translational vestibulo-ocular reflex in the fore and aft axis in the surge plane and alternating hypertropia along with abnormal torsion arising out of anomalies in the pitch and roll plane respectively. [5] A head tilt test, evaluation for torsion and alternating hypertropias are mandated in AACE as they may point towards a skew deviation in all its three dimensions due to CNS involvement warranting neuroimaging.

The author's comments trivializing neuroimaging were misleading as CNS tuberculosis and neuro-cysticercosis, among many other CNS disorders are rampant in our country and may lead to life-threatening diagnostic oversight and also lead to unnecessary strabismus surgery. Acute acquired comitant esotropia is too diverse to be classed as a single entity and such attempts may be fraught with perilous consequences.

References

1Kothari M. Clinical characteristics of spontaneous late onset comitant acute nonaccomodative esotropia in children. Indian J Ophthalmol 2007;55:117-20.
2Simon AL, Borchert M. Etiology and prognosis of acute, late-onset esotropia. Ophthalmology 1997;104:1348-52.
3Burian HM, Miller JE. Comitant convergent strabismus with acute onset. Am J Ophthalmol 1958;45:55-64.
4Hoyt CS, Good WV. Acute onset concomitant esotropia: When it is a sign of serious neurological disease? Br J Ophthalmol 1995;79:498-501.
5Brodsky MC, Donahue SP, Vaphiades M, Brandt T. Skew deviation revisited. Surv Ophthalmol 2006;51:105-28.