Abstract:Objective To evaluate the clinical effects of binocular rectus recession (BLR-rec) and monocular retraction resection (RR) in the treatment of intermittent exotropia (IXT) with primary or pseudo-abductive exotropia in children. Methods From February 2016 to April 2018, 90 children with primary or pseudo-abductive exotropia who underwent surgical treatment were selected as subjects. Among them, 40 cases were treated with bilateral rectus recession (BLR-rec) group. Fifty cases were treated with one-eye retraction and one amputation as RR group. The surgical success and strabismus were compared between the two groups at 1 day, 1 month, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months after operation. And two groups at 24 months after surgery in different strabismus range of successful cases and the occurrence of postoperative exotropia in the two groups were recorded. Results There was no significant difference in the success rate between the two groups at 1 day, 1 month, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months after operation (P?>?0.05), but from one month after operation, the success rate of the two groups showed a decreasing trend with the passage of time (P?0.05). Under the 6 m eye position, there was a difference in strabismus between the two groups at different time points (P?0.05); there was no difference in strabismus between BLR-rec group and RR group (P?>?0.05); under 33?cm eye position, there was a difference in strabismus between the two groups at different time points (P?< 0.05); there was no significant difference between blr-rec group and RR group (P?>?0.05); there was a difference between the two groups in the trend of squint with time (P?0.05). There was no significant difference in the success rate between the two groups at 24 months after operation in different strabismus range (P?>?0.05). The maximum external oblique drift occurred within 1?d to 1 month after surgery in the two groups. The amount of external oblique drift was (5.3?±?4.2) in the RR group and (5.2?±?4.0) in the r-rec group, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (P?>?0.05). However, the external oblique drift in the RR group was (12.4?±?3.7) higher than (7.4?±?3.1) in the r-rec group within 1?d to 12 months after surgery, and the difference was statistically significant (P?0.05). Conclusion In the patients with exotropia treated with RR or BLR-rec, the two surgical methods have the same long-term success rate, and the success rate will decrease with the prolongation of time, and the incidence of extroductive drift in the treatment of RR should be higher than that in the control group. Therefore, the long-term effect of BLR-rec therapy is better than that of RR therapy.