Physical therapy exercises for improving intermittent exotropia control post-strabismus surgery: A randomized controlled study.

Only 40 patients were studied, so the result may be unstable. Participants had to have normal sensory and motor fusion, equal visual acuity, good general health and ability to do home exercises, so the findings may not apply to more complicated or less able patients. Participants and therapists knew the treatment assignment; only the eye-control assessor was blind. The experimental group received many treatments together, so the study cannot show which exercise component helped. Follow-up was only three months, while post-surgery exotropia recurrence can occur through the first two years. The paper did not show that this prevented recurrence or reoperation. Home exercise cooperation varied, and the outcome depended on patients' performance, which may have differed.

The authors reported no potential conflict of interest and no funding.

Do not conclude that PNF or balance board exercises alone caused the improvement. The exercise group also received palming, eye exercises, pencil push-ups, Brock string, thumb near-distance jump, computer games, home exercises and dominant-eye occlusion, plus glasses and drops, and the study did not test these components separately.