Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Infants Treated with Anti-VEGF Agents versus Laser Photocoagulation or Cryotherapy for Retinopathy of Prematurity.

Authors

Inès Ben Ghezala, Caroline Bonnet, Caroline Conese, Amir Hassine, Maxime Luu, Catherine Creuzot-Garcher, Marc Bardou

Published in

Ophthalmology science. Volume 6. Issue 11. Pages 101371. Epub Aug 17, 2026.

Abstract

To compare the incidence of early neurodevelopmental disorders in very preterm infants treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF agents versus laser photocoagulation and/or cryotherapy for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
Nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study.
All very preterm newborns (gestational age <32 weeks) born in France between 2015 and 2022 who received treatment for ROP with anti-VEGF agents, laser photocoagulation, or cryotherapy within the first 24 weeks of life.
Using the French National Health Data System (Système National des Données de Santé), a medico-administrative database, we compared the incidence of early neurodevelopmental disorders between newborns treated with anti-VEGF agents and those treated with laser photocoagulation and/or cryotherapy, applying a propensity score‑weighted logistic regression model with inverse probability of treatment weighting.
Incidence of early neurodevelopmental disorders within the first 6 years of life.
The number of infants treated exclusively with anti-VEGF agents increased by 300% from 2015 to 2022. The primary comparative analysis was conducted on 102 newborns born between 2015 and 2019, for whom mother-infant linkage was available in the Système National des Données de Santé: 59 treated with anti-VEGF agents and 43 with laser and/or cryotherapy. Early neurodevelopmental disorders within the first 6 years of life were not observed more frequently in infants treated with anti-VEGF agents than in those treated with laser and/or cryotherapy (71.4% vs. 58.1%; odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.8-2.4; P = 0.31).
Using intravitreal anti-VEGF agents in very preterm newborns did not increase the risk of early neurodevelopmental disorders within the first 6 years of life. While a small excess risk cannot be formally excluded, these results might be reassuring for clinical practice, particularly given the substantial increase in the use of anti-VEGF agents for the treatment of ROP in recent years.
Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.

PMID:
42861086
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Oct 2026.

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