Anatomical and functional outcomes of treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in zone I

Aim
To assess treatment methods of zone I retinopathy of prema¬turity (ROP) and evaluate anatomical, functional and refractive outcomes of patients after the treatment.

Material and methods
The anatomical outcomes were evaluated retrospectively for all patients born and treated for zone I ROP in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital of Poznan University of Medical Sciences in 2016-2019. Functional and refractive out¬comes were assessed for the patients who remained in follow-up after 12 months of corrected age.

Results
Forty-five eyes of 25 patients were included in the study. Two infants (3 eyes, 6.7%) were treated with laser photocoagula¬tion (LP), 8 infants (15 eyes, 33.3%) had ranibizumab injections (IVR), 15 infants (27 eyes, 60.0%) had IVR followed by LP. Forty-one eyes (91.1%) of 23 patients had favorable anatomical outcomes characterized by an attached retina and plus disease regression. In 34 eyes of 19 patients, visual reactions, visual acuity (VA), and re-fractive error were assessed. The mean follow-up time was 36 ±17.4 months (16-64 months). In 17 patients (89.5%), visual responses were present. The mean VA for the 9 eyes tested with Lea opto¬types was logMAR 0.5±2.4 (0.5-0.1). The cycloplegic autorefractor measurements revealed: hyperopia in 2 eyes, physiological hypero¬pia/emmetropia in 8 eyes, myopia in 24 eyes.

Conclusions
Both anatomical and functional results of zone I ROP treatment in our medical center seem satisfactory. This validates the careful use of IVR as a first-line treatment in zone I ROP. Refractive measurements revealed a high number of myopic eyes both in children treated with IVR alone and in those treated with IVR with deferred LP.