Introduction

To evaluate the surgical and functional results of encircling scleral buckling in treatment of active stage 5 retinopathy of prematurity.

Material and methods

68 premature infants (121 eyes) with active stage 5 ROP operated with the use of the modified encercling buckling technique. The surgical and functional results were compared with the results observed in 91 unoperated children with active stage 5 ROP.

Results

In the operated group total retinal reattachment was observed in 52% and partial reattachment in 24,5% of premature infants. The surgery failed to reattach the retina in 23,5%. Visual acuity was: no light perception in 56,1%, light perception to 0,02 in 24,5% and 0,02 to 0,2 in 19,4% of children. In unoperated group spontaneous reattachment was observed in 6% of infants and visual acuity was: no light perception in 76%, light perception in 20% and finger counting in 4% of them.

Conclusions

The obtained results indicate, that modified encircling buckling can be an effective treatment in reattaching the retina in stage 5 ROP although useful vision can be obtained in only 20% of operated children.