Purpose: We investigated the association between the level of control and exodeviation after the monocular occlusion test (MO) in pediatric patients with intermittent exotropia. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of pediatric patients with intermittent exotropia who visited Yeungnam University Hospital between September 2015 and December 2020. The largest exodeviation obtained before and after 1 hour of MO were compared. The LACTOSE (Look And Cover, then Ten seconds of Observation Scale for Exotropia) control scoring system was used to measure the level of control. Controllability was defined when the patient had the subjective awareness of exotropia and the instinctive ability to correct ocular deviation. Results: Five hundred and three consecutive patients (260 male and 243 female patients; mean age, 7.8 years) were included. In all control scores, exodeviation significantly increased after the MO (p < 0.001). However, the patients with an increase in exodeviation ≥5 prism diopters (PD) after the test did not show any significant association with the control scores. The presence of controllability was significantly associated with an increase of ≥5 PD at near (p = 0.034). Conclusions Exodeviation showed significant increase after the MO, regardless of the level of control, in pediatric patients with intermittent exotropia. There was no significant association between the control scores and an increase of ≥5 PD after the MO. Patients with controllability were more likely to show increase in exodeviation after the MO.

Purpose: This study investigated the microbiological profile and clinical characteristics of culture positive (CP) contact lens-related bacterial keratitis (CLBK) and compared them to culture negative (CN) cases. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 142 CLBK patients hospitalized between January 1998 and December 2022. The CP and CN groups consisted of 79 eyes (100 isolates) and 63 eyes, respectively. We investigated the microbiological profile in the CP group and compared the epidemiology, predisposing factors, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcomes between the CP and CN groups. Poor treatment outcomes were defined as a final best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) ≤ 0.5, worsened BCVA after treatment, or the need for surgical intervention. We evaluated the risk factors for poor treatment outcomes in the entire cohort through two-proportional Z-test analysis. Results: In CP group, gram-negative bacteria accounted for 85%, and common isolates were Pseudomonas (27%) and Serratia (26%) species. There were significant differences in mean age (27.0 years vs. 33.8 years, p = 0.009) and a history of therapeutic bandage contact lens wear (13.9% vs. 28.6%, p = 0.031) between the CP and CN groups. However, there were no significant differences in symptom duration, prior use of topical antibiotics, sleeping with wearing CL, epithelial defect size, hypopyon, and poor treatment outcomes. Significant risk factors for poor treatment outcomes in the entire group included deep infiltration (Z = 2.88), epithelial healing time ≥ 7 days (Z = 2.30), initial BCVA < 0.1 (Z = 2.20), over date use of contact lens (Z = 2.10), and epithelial defect size ≥ 5 mm2 (Z = 2.05). Conclusions There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes between the CP and CN groups. Poor initial clinical findings and over date use of contact lens were associated with poor treatment outcomes in both groups. J Korean