Refraction and visual acuity in a national Danish cohort of 4-year-old XXXX of extremely preterm delivery.

@entity940 @entity1 @entity9340 @entity27915 @entity989 @entity4064
PURPOSE: A recent threefold increase in laser treatment for advanced @entity989 ( @entity989 ) triggered a nationwide preschool ophthalmic and developmental status among extremely preterm survivors. Here, we discuss refraction and visual acuity. METHODS: Survivors (n  =  178) from a national birth cohort (February 2004 to March 2006) of gestational age <28  weeks (PT) and 56 @entity27915 ( @entity27915 ) controls attended for evaluation at age 4  years. Cycloplegic refraction and keratometry were achieved by Retinomax autokeratorefractor and visual acuities by symbol recognition (HOTV, logMAR). RESULTS: The refractive distribution presented a myopic tail (4.5%) and a hyperopic tail (11.9% >= +2.5 D) as special preterm features, and corneas were more curved. @entity940 and @entity9340 were only marginally increased, and visual acuities were generally good. Best-corrected binocular median logMAR visual acuity was 0.1 in @entity27915 and 0.2 in PT, in Snellen equivalents 0.8 and 0.63. Snellen acuity  <=0.5 occurred across the @entity989 subgroups, but mainly in those with at least @entity989 stage 3. Two @entity1 had @entity4064 . CONCLUSIONS: The overall fair outcome for refraction and function is in accordance with other recent northern Europe experience. The results differ in particular from the poorer ophthalmic outcomes reported in the pioneer US treatment studies (cryotherapy for @entity989 and ETROP). The diode laser ablations (n  =  32) appeared effective in our series; except one @entity1 , all treated subjects had good or fair social vision at the age of 4  years.
