Retinal and Choroidal Thickness in Children with a History of Retinopathy of Prematurity and Transscleral Diode Laser Treatment

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate the outcomes of transscleral diode laser photocoagulation in the eyes of children with a history of threshold retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and compare them with the eyes of children with no or subthreshold ROP and normal term infants by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods Three groups of children aged 4 to 10 years were included as follows: 45 patients with regressed ROP who had not received any treatment (group 1), 48 patients with a history of zone 2 threshold ROP who had been treated with transscleral diode laser (group 2), and 56 age-matched healthy full-term children (group 3). Visual acuity, refractive error, and measurement of retinal and choroidal thickness by SD-OCT were compared between groups retrospectively. Results The mean gestational age (GA) and birthweight (BW) were 31 weeks and 1,409 grams in group 1, 28.7 weeks and 1,274.5 grams in group 2, and 38.4 weeks and 3,285 grams in group 3, respectively. There were 6 significant differences in the laser group: GA, BW, macular thickness, foveal depression, spherical equivalent, and visual acuity. In contrast, there were no significant differences among any of the choroidal parameters in all of the groups. Neither macular nor choroidal thickness correlated with visual acuity. Conclusions Although retinal structural changes were observed in patients with a history of ROP, especially in patients treated with laser, no significant difference was found in choroidal thickness between groups. These structural abnormalities may be related to both severity of ROP and laser treatment.