Symmetry of Disease in Retinopathy of Prematurity in the Postnatal Growth and Retinopathy of Prematurity (G-ROP) Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To determine the symmetry of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) between fellow eyes in a broad-risk cohort.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study, the Postnatal Growth and ROP (G-ROP) Study, of 7483 infants undergoing ROP examinations conducted at 29 hospitals in the United States and Canada from 2006 to 2012. The main outcomes were the symmetry for the highest stage and the most severe type (1, 2, not 1 or 2, no ROP) of ROP and disease course of the fellow eye when only one eye developed type 1.

Results

93% of infants had eyes symmetric for the highest stage and 94% for type. Among 459 infants who developed type 1, 379 (82.6%) did so in both eyes simultaneously and were treated bilaterally; 44 (10%) were treated for type 1 in one eye and type 2 in the fellow eye; and 36 (8%) were treated unilaterally initially, of which 6 fellow eyes developed type 1 and were treated (4 within 2 weeks, all within 4 weeks); 5 developed type 2 and regressed; and 25 developed ROP less than type 1 or 2, which was treated in 13 cases and regressed spontaneously in 12 cases.

Conclusions

ROP was highly symmetric between eyes with respect to the presence and severity of disease in a large, broad-risk cohort representative of infants undergoing ROP screening. When type 1 develops in one eye and type 2 in the fellow eye, the risk of progression to type 1 in the fellow eye appears very low if it has not occurred within 4 weeks.

KEYWORDS:

• Retinopathy of prematurity
• ROP
• pediatric ophthalmology

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to report.

Financial disclosures

Dr Binenbaum discloses equity interest in X Biomedical (Philadelphia, PA), equity interest in Luminopia (Boston, MA), and meeting travel expense support from Natus Medical Inc. (Pleasanton, CA).

Meeting presentation

Presented in part at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus in Washington D.C., March 20, 2018, and the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Honolulu, HI, May 1, 2018.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health grant R01EY021137 and the Richard Shafritz Chair in Ophthalmology Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research.