Abstract

GALVAN LEDESMA, A.; MORALES GUILLEN, C.; PASTOR RAMOS, M.T.  and  VAZQUEZ MAROUSCHEK, M. del Carmen. Diode laser photocoagulation of retinopathy of prematurity. Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol [online]. 2011, vol.86, n.11, pp.368-373. ISSN 0365-6691.

Objective: To describe diode laser photocoagulation results in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in our hospital. Material and method: Retrospective cross-sectional study based on clinical histories of the premature infants treated during the period from 2004 to 2008. Results: In the treated group we found a predominance of pre-threshold retinopathy versus threshold retinopathy (84.35% vs 15.65%). The anatomic results were good in 96.5% of 147 eyes. None of the treated eyes in pre-threshold stage showed a poor result. Nine months after treatment, 84.85% of 132 eyes showed good functional results. A poor visual response was associated in most of the cases with neurological diseases. Infants with intraventricular haemorrhages had the worst anatomical and functional results. Strabismus (23.5%) and nystagmus (10.3%) rates were high, probably due to the increased prevalence of neurological diseases. The mortality rate in treated children was 7.3%. Conclusions: Diode laser photocoagulation in ROP offers very good anatomical results when performed at the appropriate time. Nevertheless, prematurity is still a very important cause of visual dysfunction in infancy due to the associated neurological disturbances.

Keywords : Retinopathy of prematurity; Retinal photocoagulation; Diode laser.

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