Comitant Esotropia with Diplopia Cases Increased in Recent Years

Younger patients with comitant esotropia with diplopia may be more susceptible to emerging cases and seek treatment sooner than older patients, study suggests. Photo: Dhoot A, et al. McGill J Med. 2022 Apr. 19. Click image to enlarge. Though comitant estropia was once considered somewhat rare, there has been a recent increase in the condition, raising questions about the different etiologies possibly being responsible. In a recent study, researchers sought to investigate its incidence using a large insurance claim database in the United States. They found that the proportion of comitant esotropia with diplopia in strabismus has increased since 2007, more so in females and young patients. The findings were reported in Ophthalmology Science.Claims for this condition were extracted using a combination of esotropia- and diplopia-related codes. The claim ratio of esotropia to strabismus was calculated from 2007 to 2022, and age and sex distributions were compared between the first (2007 to 2014) and second (2015 to 2022) half periods.There were three significant findings in this study: comitant esotropia with diplopia demonstrated a significant female predominance than other strabismus claims, the esotropia claim ratio linearly increased from 1.27% in 2007 to 3.49% in 2022, and the proportion of those in their 20s and 30s was higher during between 2015 and 2022.The female predominance intensified further during 2015-2022. “More importantly, the sex predilection changed among the younger patients, from male to female, suggesting an intensification of female preference for the entity,” the authors wrote in their paper on the work. In contrast, female predilection remained relatively stable among older patients throughout the study period. Because of these findings, younger female patients of concomitant ET with diplopia may be more susceptible to new causes, according to the authors.The proportion of younger patients, especially those in their 20s and 30s, was higher during between 2015 and 2022 than in the years 2007 through 2014, suggesting that the increased incidence of comitant esotropia with diplopia was led by the younger patients. They may be more susceptible to emerging causes and tend to seek treatment sooner than older patients in the latter half period, the authors noted. Click here for the journal source.  Kim DH, Lambery SR. Is the incidence of concomitant esotropia with diplopia in the United States increasing? Ophthalmology Sci. April 11, 2025. [Epub ahead of print.]