Comparative study of the retinal structure and visual acuity in 7–12-year-old children between children with a history of treatment of retinopathy of prematurity and regressed retinopathy of prematurity: multicenter review of J-CREST

Abstract Purpose Previous studies have reported the efficacy of photocoagulation (PC) therapy for treating retinopathy of prematurity (ROP); however, its long-term effects on visual function and retinal structure remain unclear. This study compared the visual function and retinal structure of school...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yutaro Mizusawa, Tomo Nishi, Nahoko Ogata, Kayo Shinomiya, Yoshinori Mitamura, Naoki Kimura, Fumi Gomi, Akiko Miki, Makoto Nakamura, Takamasa Kinoshita, Shumpei Obata, Masahito Ohji, Takuya Tsuji, Shigeo Yoshida, Tetsuo Ueda
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-06-01
Series:BMC Ophthalmology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12886-025-04140-6
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Purpose Previous studies have reported the efficacy of photocoagulation (PC) therapy for treating retinopathy of prematurity (ROP); however, its long-term effects on visual function and retinal structure remain unclear. This study compared the visual function and retinal structure of school-aged children (7–12 years) with ROP who underwent PC therapy with those of children with untreated ROP. Methods Seventy-eight eyes of 78 patients diagnosed with ROP who were followed up until school age were evaluated. Fifty-one eyes that underwent PC therapy and 27 eyes with spontaneously regressed ROP were included in the PC-treated and untreated groups, respectively. One eye of each patient was included in the analysis at random. Results The mean best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in the PC-treated and untreated groups was 0.05 ± 0.19 and 0.04 ± 0.35 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) units and no significant differences were observed (p = 0.896, t-test). The mean spherical equivalent in the PC-treated and untreated groups was − 4.2 ± 4.7 D and − 0.8 ± 2.5 D (p < 0.001). PC-treated eyes were treated at ROP zone II in 42/51 eyes, ROP stage 3 in 41/51 eyes and showed plus disease in 31/51 eyes. Untreated eyes were regressed from ROP zone II in 22/27 eyes, ROP stage3 in 8/27eyes, and showed plus disease in 3/27eyes. The eyes in the PC-treated group were more myopic than those in the untreated group; further, they exhibited a unique foveal morphology with thicker foveal thickness (274.2 ± 29.9 μm in the PC-treated and 239.9 ± 25.0 μm in the untreated groups p < 0.001), inner retinal layer retention (23.6 ± 12.5 μm in the PC-treated and 14.1 ± 7.1 μm in the untreated groups p = 0.004) and a thicker outer nuclear layer (130.3 ± 20.0 μm in the PC-treated and 110.8 ± 20.6 μm in the untreated groups p < 0.001). No significant differences were observed in the outer retinal, inner segment (43.7 ± 4.9 μm in the PC-treated and 45.2 ± 5.0 μm in the untreated groups p = 0.231), or outer segment (45.0 ± 4.6 μm in the PC-treated and 43.8 ± 4.8 μm in the untreated groups p = 0.238) layers’ thickness. Conclusion The findings of the present study suggest that school-aged children who underwent PC therapy for ROP had good visual acuity, however the inner retinal structure remained immature.
ISSN:1471-2415