Purpose  

To present a novel, minimally invasive strabismus surgery (MISS) technique for inferior obliquus recessions.

Methods  

Graded MISS inferior obliquus recessions were performed in 20 eyes of 15 patients by applying two small conjunctival cuts, one at the insertion of inferior obliquus and another where the scleral anchoring of the muscle occurred.

Results  

The amount of recession was 12.2 ± 2.3 mm (range 6 to 14 mm). The vertical deviation, which was measured in 25° of adduction, decreased from preoperatively 12.8° ± 5.6° to 2.7° ± 2.2° (p < 0.0001) at 6 months. LogMAR visual acuity was preoperatively −0.10 ± 0.17 and at 6 months −0.14 ± 0.22 (p > 0.1). In one eye (2.5%) the two cuts had to be joined because of excessive bleeding. Binocular vision improved in eight patients, remained unchanged in six patients, and decreased from 30 to 60 arcsec in one patient (p > 0.1). Conjunctival and lid swelling were hardly visible on the first postoperative day in primary gaze position in 10/20 (50%) of eyes. Five of the eyes (25%) had mild and five (25%) moderate visibility of surgery. One patient out of 15 (7%) needed repeat surgery because of insufficient reduction of the sursoadduction within the first 6 months. The dose–effect relationship 6 months postoperatively for an accommodative near target at 25° adduction was 0.83° ± 0.43° per mm of recession.

Conclusions  

This study demonstrates that small-incision, minimal dissection inferior obliquus graded recessions are feasible and effective to improve ocular alignment in patients with strabismus sursoadductorius.