ESCRS - PO1073 - Five-Year Refractive Outcomes In Patients With Retinopathy Of Prematurity: A Single-Center Study In Turkey

Five-Year Refractive Outcomes In Patients With Retinopathy Of Prematurity: A Single-Center Study In Turkey

Published 2024 - 42nd Congress of the ESCRS

Reference: PO1073 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/8yj1-qh97

Authors: Ahmad Kunbaz* ¹ , Osman Kizilay ² , Gökhan Çelik ²

¹Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Medeniyet University,Istanbul,Türkiye, ²Ophthalmology,Zeynep Kamil Maternity and Children’s Training and Research Hospital,Istanbul,Türkiye

Purpose

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a known risk factor for severe myopia in infants. This study investigates the long-term changes in refraction in infants with ROP In different treatment settings over a five-year period.

Setting

In this retrospective cohort study, 152 infants diagnosed with ROP from 2019 to 2023 at Zeynep Kamil Maternity and Children’s Training and Research Hospital were studied.

Methods

Patients with a minimum of five years' continuous follow-up post-diagnosis were included. Grouping was based on treatment: Intravitreal Bevacizumab (IVB, n=44), Laser Photocoagulation (LPC, n=41), Combined Therapy (CT, n=17), and regressed ROP (RROP, n=50). Comprehensive data on patient characteristics like birth weight, gestational age, treatment specifics, and follow-up length were recorded. The primary endpoints included refractive status (spherical equivalent, astigmatism), strabismus, and anisometropia assessed at 6-month intervals up to 60 months.

Results

The study found no significant gender differences in treatment groups. Patients in RROP group had higher birth weight and gestational age compared to others (p<0.05). The first treatment week was later in the LPC group, which also had a higher rate of initial treatment in zone II. Over 6 to 60 months, the RROP showed significantly higher spherical equivalents than other groups (p<0.05).Astigmatism values were similar across groups except at 60 months, where IVB and RROP groups had significantly higher values (p<0.05).Visual acuity was notably better in the RROP group compared to LPC and IVB+LPC (p<0.05), and the LPC group had better visual acuity than IVB+LPC.There were no significant differences in strabismus or anisometropia among groups.

Conclusions

Although RROP patients exhibited better visual acuity, they had progressively higher refractive errors in comparison to the other treatment groups. IVB and combined therapy demonstrated inferior visual outcomes relative to other groups. These findings imply the need to a personalized follow-up plan for each ROP patient according to the treatment applied in order to preserve vision and avoid amblyopia.