The likelihood that the eyes will stay aligned over the longer term is higher if the patient is able to achieve some degree of binocular fusion after surgery than if not. In a study on infantile esotropia patients who had either small-angle (8 diopters) esotropia or small-angle exotropia of the same size six months after the intervention, it was found that those who had the small-angle esotropia were more likely to have aligned eyes five years after the intervention than those with small-angle exotropia.[9] There is tentative evidence that children with infantile esotropia patients achieve better binocular vision post-operatively if the surgical treatment is performed early (see: Infantile esotropia#Surgery).