Macular Structures, Optical Components, and Visual Acuity in Preschool Children after Intravitreal Bevacizumab or...

To investigate the macular structures, optical components, and visual acuity in preschool-aged children with a history of type I retinopathy of prematurity who underwent either intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB), laser, or a combination of treatments.

Comparative interventional case series.

Setting: A referred medical center in Taiwan.

Eighty eyes from 42 patients (33 IVB-treated eyes from 17 children, 24 laser-treated eyes from 13 children, and 23 laser + IVB-treated eyes from 12 children).

Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

The retinal thickness in the foveal area and the associated morphologic changes in foveal depression.

Compared with the laser-treated and laser + IVB-treated eyes, the IVB-treated eyes had less myopia and deeper anterior chamber depths but presented similar axial lengths and corneal curvatures (P = .001, P = .002, P = .95, and P = .16, respectively). The IVB-treated eyes had significantly thinner foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal retinal thicknesses (P < .01 for all) and a higher incidence of foveal depression than the laser- or laser + IVB-treated eyes. The macular and subfoveal choroidal thicknesses did not differ among the groups (P = .21 and P = .63, respectively). Moreover, compared with the eyes treated with laser or laser + IVB, the IVB-treated eyes had better uncorrected visual acuity, although a significant difference was not observed in best-corrected visual acuity (P = .008 and P = .29, respectively).

Compared with laser therapy, IVB-treated eyes were associated with deeper anterior chamber depths and thinner foveal, parafoveal, and perifoveal thicknesses. Moreover, these IVB-treated eyes had fewer refractive errors and better uncorrected visual acuity.