Macular Structures, Optical Components, and Visual Acuity in Preschool Children after Intravitreal Bevacizumab or Laser Treatment

Abstract

To investigate the macular structures, optical components, and visual acuity in preschool-aged children with a history of type I retinopathy of prematurity who underwent either intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB), laser, or a combination of treatments. Comparative interventional case series. Setting: A referred medical center in Taiwan. Eighty eyes from 42 patients (33 IVB-treated eyes from 17 children, 24 laser-treated eyes from 13 children, and 23 laser+ IVB-treated eyes from 12 children). Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. The retinal thickness in the foveal area and the associated morphologic changes in foveal depression. Compared with the laser-treated and laser+ IVB-treated eyes, the IVB-treated eyes had less myopia and deeper anterior chamber depths but presented similar axial lengths and corneal curvatures (P= .001, P= .002, P= .95, and P= .16, respectively). The IVB-treated eyes had significantly thinner foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal retinal thicknesses (P < .01 for all) and a higher incidence of foveal depression than the laser- or laser+ IVB-treated eyes. The macular and subfoveal choroidal thicknesses did not differ among the groups (P= .21 and P= .63, respectively). Moreover, compared with the eyes treated with laser or laser+ IVB, the IVB-treated eyes had better uncorrected visual acuity, although a significant difference was not observed in best-corrected visual acuity (P= .008 and P= .29, respectively). Compared with laser therapy, IVB-treated eyes were associated with deeper anterior chamber depths and thinner foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal thicknesses. Moreover, these IVB-treated eyes had fewer refractive errors and better uncorrected visual acuity.