A LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF PATIENTS WITH RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY TREATED WITH PHOTOCOAGULATION AND CRYOTHERAPY

To evaluate the refractive characteristics of adults diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) treated with ablation treatment as children, we measured best corrected visual acuity (BCVA, logMAR), spherical equivalent refraction (SER), axial length (AL), lens thickness (LT), anterior chamber depth (ACD) and the corneal curvature radius (CCR) from 46 eyes, 24 patients (15-30 years old) that were diagnosed with ROP. Patients were divided into two groups dependent on the size of the treated retina at the time of ablation treatment; i.e., 360 degrees group (treatment over the whole circumference of the retina; n=18) and partial group (treatment over part of the retina; n=28). The study showed that LT was significantly larger (P<1x10(-4)) and ACD was significantly shorter (P<1x10(-3)) in 360 degrees group (4.26 +/- 0.40 mm and 2.92 +/- 0.48 mm, respectively) than those in partial group (3.71 +/- 0.34 mm and 3.42 +/- 0.26 mm, respectively). However, there were no differences in SER (-6.52 +/- 3.54 diopter vs. -5.95 +/- 4.12 diopter, P=0.31), AL (23.9 +/- 1.42 mm vs. 25.0 +/- 1.48 mm, P=0.08) and CCR (7.59 +/- 0.37 mm vs. 7.59 +/- 0.19 mm, P=0.86). These results indicated that the eyes in the 360 degrees group had larger LTs but did not have extended ALs compared with the partial group.