Myopia in infants treated for retinopathy of prematurity: the first year of life

Abstract

Premature birth is associated with an increase in incidence of refractive errors. Cryotherapy for threshold retinopathy of prematurity further increases risk of developing high myopia. It was our clinical impression that a change in treatment to laser resulted in less severe myopia. We undertook a longitudinal study to determine the refractive outcome of each therapy. A total of 19 patients undergoing cryotherapy and 14 patients undergoing laser treatment, had cycloplegic refractions at corrected ages of three months and one year. At 3 months the median spherical equivalent refractive error in the right eye was −3.25 dioptres after cryotherapy and +0.25 dioptres after laser therapy. At twelve months it was −5.25 dioptres following cryotherapy and −0.50 dioptres after laser. The results for the left eye were comparable. The difference between the median spherical refractive error for the two treatment groups were significant at three months and twelve months (p > 0.05 Wilcoxon rank sum). Laser therapy is associated with lower degrees of myopia during the first year of life.