BTA injections can treat infantile esotropia

Botulinum toxin type A (BTA) injections, with or without sodium hyaluronate (SH), are effective and feasible for the treatment of infantile esotropia, claims a paper in the journal Eye.

The investigation, led by Dr J. Chen, State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, included 47 patients with infantile esotropia who were randomly divided into two groups. Group A included 23 cases treated with bilateral injection of 2.5–3.75 U BTA combined with sodium hyaluronate (SH). In group B 24 patients were administered the BTA solution with SH. All patients did not undergo electromyography and injections were evaluated two weeks, three months and six months postoperatively.

Both groups presented with good alignment six months after injections, with group A at 30.4% and group B at 37.5%. Complicated ptosis and vertical deviation were 2.2% vs 20.8% and 2.2% vs 2.1% in groups A and B, respectively.

BTA injections with or without SH produced similar results and demonstrated effectiveness and feasibility. However, BTA injections with SH relatively decrease the frequency of complicated ptosis.

The abstract can be read here.