Comparison of Intravitreal Bevacizumab, Intravitreal Ranibizumab and Laser Photocoagulation for Treatment of Type 1 Retinopathy of Prematurity in Turkish Preterm Children

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate effectiveness of treatment modalities, major complications and refractive errors in children who were treated with intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB), intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) or laser photocoagulation (LP) for type 1 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Methods: Premature infants who underwent IVB monotherapy (Group 1), IVR monotherapy (Group 2) or LP (Group 3) for type 1 ROP and infants with spontaneously regressed ROP (Group 4) were included for the study. Major complications, recurrence rate, recurrence time, total retinal vascularization time and refractive errors at 18 months of corrected age (CA) were determined.

Results: Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 included 24 eyes of 12 patients, 12 eyes of six patients, 72 eyes of 36 patients and 148 eyes of 74 patients, respectively. Recurrence of the disease occurred in two eyes of one patient in Group 1 at 52 weeks of postmenstrual age (PMA) and two eyes of one patient at 48 weeks of PMA in Group 2. In Group 3, disease did not regress after the first treatment in 10 eyes of five patients. The mean vascularization time in Group 1 was 73 ± 10.1 weeks of PMA and 61.8 ± 6.6 weeks of PMA in Group 2 (p = 0.027). Macular ectopia was seen in two eyes of one patient and exudative retinal detachment (ERD) occurred in two eyes of one patient in Group 3. Mean spherical equivalent was 1.49 ± 3.04 diopters (D) in Group 1, -1.79 ± 2.87D in Group 2, -1.27 ± 2.8 D in Group 3 and 1.52 ± 1.07 D in Group 4 at 18 months of CA. There was no significant difference in astigmatism values in all groups.

Conclusion: IVB, IVR and LP are options that can successfully treat ROP. Myopia was observed to be the main refractive error in all treatment groups. Vascularization of the retina was completed later in the IVB group than in the IVR group.

Keywords: Bevacizumab; complication; laser photocoagulation; ranibizumab; refractive errors; retinopathy of prematurity.