Symposium on Retinopathy of Prematurity Treatment Options
Thursday, January 26 2017 | 00 h 00 min | Vision Science
The Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) has devoted a mini-symposium to the latest developments and new techniques for treating retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP is a leading cause of blindness in children, but with modern medicine, 90% of afflicted infants can expect favourable outcomes.
The issue (Volume 20, Issue 6) opens with a call to end ROP through “a revolution in diagnosis, management and prevention.”
“We are fortunate to have a community of scientists devoted to working on a leading cause of blindness in children,” said Journal of AAPOS Editor-in-Chief William V. Good, MD, The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA. “Look how far we have come, thanks to the hard work of so many. It’s time to consider the real possibility that this condition can be eliminated. When that happens, we will have achieved nothing short of a miracle.”
The symposium contains a review from Michael Chiang on the latest advancements in telemedicine, allowing experts to diagnose ROP remotely.
Dr. David K. Wallace reviews the available intravitreal anti-VEGF treatments for ROP, including bevacizumab (Avastin), ranibizumab (Lucentis), pegapatanib (Macugen) and aflibercept (Eylea).
Dr. Mintz-Hittner writes about her research on intravitreal treament with bevacizumab for ROP.
All articles from the mini-symposium are available to freely access from the JAAPOS website (http://www.jaapos.org/issue/S1091-8531(16)X0007-9 ).
