PURPOSE: To report the structural and functional outcomes at a minimum of 7 years postmenstrual age after randomized treatment of threshold @entity989 with laser ablation or cryotherapy. METHODS: Nineteen @entity1 were entered into a prospective, randomized protocol, in which one eye received cryotherapy, while the other eye received diode laser photocoagulation. Asymmetric eyes were randomly assigned. Two @entity1 have died, and seven were no longer available for 7-year outcome examinations, leaving 10 @entity1 for analysis. RESULTS: Six males and four females with a mean birthweight of 631 g and a mean gestational age of 24.8 weeks were examined. Eight were symmetrical cases and treated in both eyes. Of these, there were six concordant and two discordant structural outcomes. The laser-treated eyes had the favorable outcome in each instance. The geometric mean visual acuity of the paired eyes after laser photocoagulation was 20/33, and after cryotherapy it was 20/133 (P =.03). The mean refractive error was -6.50 diopters after laser photocoagulation and -8.25 diopters after cryotherapy (P =.27), although one of the cryotherapy eyes could not be refracted because of @entity1907 . CONCLUSIONS: Laser photocoagulation appears to be associated with a structural and functional outcome at least as good as cryotherapy 7 years after therapy. Visual acuity and @entity2516 suggest that laser photocoagulation may have an advantage over cryotherapy.

Randomized comparison of diode laser photocoagulation versus cryotherapy for threshold XXXX : seven-year outcome.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['children', 'patients'] @entity1907 :: ('MESH:D014397', 'Disease') :: ['phthisis'] @entity2516 :: ('MESH:D012030', 'Disease') :: ['refractive error data'] @entity989 :: ('MESH:D012164', 'Disease') :: ['retinopathy of prematurity']
@entity989 :: (MESH:D012164,Disease) :: ['retinopathy of prematurity']
