Results of Surgical Treatment for the Children with Persistent Pupillary Membrane

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the long-term results of surgical treatment for the children with persistent pupillary membrane. METHOD: A retrospective study comprised of 12 eyes of 11 Korean patients who underwent surgical removal of persistent pupillary membrane who could be followed up beyond 4 years of age, excluding eyes with any other vision-affecting ocular anomalies. The preoperative and final visual acuity, age at surgery, final refractive status, surgical complication and combined ocular abnormality were reviewed. Mean visual acuity was calculated using logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR). RESULTS: Mean final BCVA was 20/257 (logMAR 1.11+/-0.68) in the unilateral 5 eyes and 20/33 (logMAR 0.22+/-0.25) in the bilateral 7 eyes, and there was significant difference (p=0.03). Of the 12 eyes, five eyes were under 0.3 at the last follow-up. Four eyes were unilateral (deprivation amblyopia) and one eye was bilateral (anisometropic amblyopia). Significant anisometropia was found in 7 of the 11 patients. One mild capsular opacity occurred as a postoperative complication. CONCLUSIONS: The visual prognoses for eyes with surgically removed persistent pupillary membranes were relatively good if they were bilateral. However, they showed poor visual outcome if they were unilateral in this study, so the early surgical intervention and aggressive management will be helpful if the persistent pupillary membrane is unilateral. Close follow-up with evaluation of visual acuity and refractive status is mandatory because this condition can lead to deprivation amblyopia and anisometropic amblyopia.