Early Laser Treatment of Rush-Type Retinopathy of Prematurity.

Kim, So Young; Kim, Seong Joon; Yu, Young Suk

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 2005;46(3):448-455.
Published online March 31, 2005.

Early Laser Treatment of Rush-Type Retinopathy of Prematurity.

So Young Kim, Seong Joon Kim, Young Suk Yu

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. ysyu@snu.ac.kr
²Seoul Artificial Eye Center, Seoul National University Hospital Clinical Research Institute, Seoul. Korea.

러시형 미숙아망막병증에 대한 조기 광응고술의 결과

김소영,김성준,유영석

Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Seoul Artificial Eye Center, Seoul National University Hospital Clinical Research Institute, Seoul. Korea

Correspondence: So-Young Kim, M.D.

Abstract

PURPOSE
We analyse the effect of the early laser treatment of rush-type ROP. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of the records of 34 eyes of 17 premature infants with rush-type ROP, treated with diode indirect laser within 3 days after diagnosis and followed up for at least a year. RESULTS: Mean gestational age was 28+4 weeks, mean birth weight was 1182.9 gm and mean follow-up was 35.8 months. All patients were diagnosed with rush-type ROP at an average of 34+3 weeks and were treated with diode laser photocoagulation within an average of 1.6 days after diagnosis. The retinopathy regressed after photocoagulation in 25 eyes but regressed in 9 eyes so 8 of these eyes underwent secondary treatment. The outcome was favorable in 27 (79.4%) and unfavorable in 8 (20.6%) of the 34 treated eyes. The frequency of unfavorable outcome increased higher as acute stage at the time of treatment increased in severity. Especially in stage 3 threshold, the unfavorable outcome (33.3%) was significantly higher than that of stage 3 prethreshold (0%). CONCLUSIONS: In rush-type ROP, early treatment may be indicated regardless of the degree of EFP (extraretinal fibrovascular proliferation) because the outcome is poor by the time the stage at treatment has reached threshold.

Key Words: Diode laser photocoagulation;Early treatment;Rush-type ROP