Abstract
Purpose: :
The aim of the study was to investigate cycloplegic refraction and ocular alignement in a population of preterm infants in the Neonatology Service of the University Hospital of Varese from 1996 to 2004, with regard to birth weight (BW) and gestational age (GA).
Methods: :
We included 238 preterm infants with BW of 1500gr or less and/or GA of 32 weeks or less examinated at one year old. We analyzed visual refraction and ocular alignement. We considered retinopathy of prematury (ROP) stage I and II as "mild ROP" and ROP stage III, IIIplus, IV and V as "severe ROP". We identified three groups of patients: 187 infants (374 eyes) without evidence of ROP (group 1), 33 infants (66 eyes) with mild ROP (group 2) and 18 infants (36 eyes) affected by severe ROP (group 3).
Results: :
The incidence of ocular disorders in group 1 was: emmetropy 4%, myopia 5%, hypermetropia 37%, astigmatism 54%, strabismus 5.3%. The incidence in group 2: emmetropy 1.9%, myopia 17.3%, hypermetropia 27.8%, astigmatism 45%, strabismus 11.5%. The icidence in group 3: emmetropy 5%, myopia 39%, hypermetropia 19%, astigmatism 37%, strabismus 38%.
Conclusions: :
Myopia and strabismus were predominant in infants affected by ROP (groups 2 and 3) compared with infants without ROP (group 1). The risk of those ocular disorders increases with the increasing of severity of ROP (group 3). Our data underline that the greatest importance should be given to the correction of these defects to prevent amblyopia and visual impairement in adulthood.
Keywords: retinopathy of prematurity • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications • infant vision