Laserphotocoagulation and Cryotherapy for Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity

ROP is a neovascular eye disease that affects the developing retina in premature infants and is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness. Transscleral cryotherapy to the avascular retina was applied in cases with threshold disease may reduce unfavorable outcome to 21.8% compared with the untreated eyes (43%). Early treatment of high-risk prethreshold ROP according to ETROP criteria significantly reduced unfavorable outcomes to a clinically important degree from 15.6% to 9.1%. Analyzing ETROP long term results showed unfavorable results especially in posterior Zone-I and AP-ROP cases. Although anti-VEGF therapy is a promising therapy in these RP group, its use is still controversial.