Long-term evaluation of refractive changes in eyes of preterm children: a 6-year follow-up study.

Purpose: To investigate the longitudinal changes in refractive errors in preterm children with and without retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the first 6 years of life.

Methods: We included 226 preterm children with a gestational age of ≤34 weeks: 222 eyes with no ROP, 73 eyes with mild ROP and 145 eyes with severe ROP. Longitudinal cycloplegic refraction data were collected initially and yearly thereafter until 6 years of age.

Results: Eyes in the severe ROP group showed an increase in myopia values between the 1- and 3-year examinations (p = 0.005), with little change thereafter. However, the mild/no ROP group demonstrated a nonsignificant increasing myopia values throughout the 6-year follow-up (p = 0.073). Both the mild/no ROP and severe ROP groups were found to have increasing mean astigmatism values with increasing age, albeit nonsignificantly (p = 0.418, p = 0.384, respectively). Likewise, the stable mean values of anisometropia increased nonsignificantly during the first 6 years of life in both the mild/no ROP and severe ROP groups (p = 0.246, p = 0.073, respectively). Severe ROP group had higher values regarding myopia, astigmatism, and anisometropia parameters than the mild/no ROP group for all ages during the follow-up.

Conclusions: Preterm children with severe ROP should be closely monitored, and also those with mild/no ROP should be carefully followed up for not overlooking possible increases in refractive conditions.