Some Observations on Intermittent Exotropia

The termintermittent exotropiais usually reserved to designate that type of oculomotor anomaly in which the two eyes appear for the most part to be well coordinated, yet for some unknown reason, one eye may suddenly turn out, often through a rather large angle. The patient usually is not aware that the eye has turned out; he does not experience double vision.¹It has accordingly been assumed that the image in that eye is somehow suddenly suppressed. Apparently the suppression is not complete, however, because a moving light can be seen in the periphery by the deviating eye (the nose of the patient prevents the light from being seen by the fixating eye). Some evidence exists that the suppression is mostly in the macular or central area of the deviating eye,²only during the actual deviation. It has been suggested also³that this phenomenon may not