Visual Field Extent At 6 Years Of Age In Children Who Had High-Risk Prethreshold Retinopathy Of Prematurity Early Treatment For Retinopathy Of Prematurity Cooperative Group

Objective: To compare monocular visual field extent at 6 years of age in eyes with high-risk prethreshold retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) randomized to early treatment (ET) with eyes that underwent conventional management (CM) and were treated at threshold or regressed without treatment.Methods: Subjects were 370 surviving study participants who developed high-risk prethreshold ROP and were enrolled in the Early Treatment for Retinopathy of Prematurity Study between October 1,2000, and September 30, 2002. When the participants were 6 years of age, vision testers unaware of ROP status used white-sphere kinetic perimetry to measure visual field extent along the superotemporal, inferotemporal, inferonasal, and superonasal meridians.Results: The extent of the visual field was 0.1 degrees to 3.7 degrees larger in ET eyes when blind eyes were assigned a score of 0 degrees. When data were examined from eyes of participants with 1 sighted ET eye and 1 sighted CM eye, ET eyes showed a small (1.3 degrees-3.1 degrees) reduction, which was statistically significant only along the superonasal meridian (P = .005). In bilaterally sighted children, visual field extent was not significantly reduced for high-risk type 1 ET eyes (-0.9 degrees to 1.8 degrees). However, in ET eyes with high-risk type 2 disease, visual field extent was significantly smaller compared with that of CM eyes (3.6 degrees-8.7 degrees superonasal field [P = .003]; inferonasal field [P < .001]).Conclusion: Early treatment preserves peripheral vision, with only a small reduction of visual field extent.