Cross-Sectional Refractive Outcome, Ocular Abnormalities, and Intraoucular Pressure among Severe Preterm and Term Malay Children without Retinopathy of Prematurity

Purpose: To evaluate the refractive errors, ocular abnormalities, and introcular pressure in severe preterm and term Malay children aged 8 16 years old. Design: Comparison cross-sectional study. Participants: Children aged 8 to 16 years old at follow up visit at Hospital universiti sains Malaysia of risk factor of prematurity. Methods: Detailed eye examination, including subjective retinoscopy, ocular movement (EOM) assessment, Snellen chart for distance (Reichert, NY, USA), Slit lamp biomicroscopy (Clement Clarke International, UK) with 90D and 78D lenses (Volk, USA), Goldman applanation tonometer. Results: The mean spherical equivalent for the right eye was -1.42 (2.63) diopter in the severe preterm group, whilst in the term group was -0.48 (0.79) diopter. In the left eye, the spherical equivalent for severe preterm patients was -1.23 (2.56) diopter and for term group was -0.33 (0.7) diopter. There was no statistically significant difference of spherical equivalent in the right eye and left eye between severe preterm and term patients (Table 4.2.8). Intraocular pressure was noted to be lower in the severe preterm group (14.28 mmHg) compared to term group (16.00 mmHg). This difference was statistically significant with p = 0.04 (Table 4.2.6). Conclusion: This study showed that Intraocular pressure was statistically significant in preterm children compared to term Malay children aged 8-16 years old.