Multicenter trial of cryotherapy for retinopathy of prematurity. One-year outcome--structure and function. Cryotherapy for Retinopathy of Prematurity Cooperative Group.

This study of the safety and efficacy of cryotherapy in treating severe retinopathy of prematurity registered 9751 infants with birth weights less than 1251 g at 23 study centers. Two hundred ninety-one infants developed a defined threshold retinopathy of prematurity, and cryotherapy was performed in approximately half of the eyes through a randomization protocol. Twelve months after randomization, results of masked grading of fundus photographs of the posterior pole were similar to results obtained 3 months after randomization, and indicated an unfavorable outcome in 25.7% of the eyes that received cryotherapy compared with 47.4% of the control eyes (P less than .0001). For the first time, masked Teller Acuity Card assessment of grating acuity was performed in this study group and indicated an unfavorable functional outcome in 35.0% of the treated eyes compared with 56.3% of the control eyes (P less than .0001). These results indicate that cryotherapy reduces the risk of unfavorable retinal and functional outcome from threshold retinopathy of prematurity.