Lens-sparing vitrectomy may help maintain long-term vision in some ROP patients

Lens-sparing vitrectomy for retinopathy of prematurity helps many patients maintain  long-term useful vision, but some eyes still experience no functional vision, according to a study.

The single-center, retrospective chart review consisted of 37 eyes of 30 patients with stage 4 or 5 ROP. Patients had a mean age of 7.1 years at last follow-up. Three-port lens-sparing vitrectomy was performed, and scleral buckling was added when the surgeon did not think that vitrectomy would relieve tractional forces.

At last follow-up, the anatomic success rate was 91% for stage 4A, 88% for stage 4B and 40% for stage 5. Success between stage 4A and 4B was not significantly different with the inclusion of scleral buckling. A statistical comparison could not be made for stage 5.

Of stage 4A and 4B patients, 63% percent had measurable visual acuity at last follow-up. Mean logMAR visual acuity was 0.92 in stage 4A patients and 1.63 in stage 4B patients. Nineteen percent of patients had form vision with neurological comorbidities that did not allow visual acuity measurement, and 18% had light perception or no light perception.