Pediatric Surgical Outcomes of Persistent Fetal Vasculature: A Five-Year Retrospective Study at a Tertiary Eye Center in Kazakhstan

Abstract

To present the surgical outcomes of Persistent Fetal Vasculature (PFV) in a pediatric cohort over five years at the main referral tertiary eye care center in Kazakhstan. A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records of 23 pediatric patients (24 eyes) under 18 years old who were treated for PFV at the Kazakh Eye Research Institute between 2017 and 2021. Clinical presentations of PFV, types of surgery performed, and postoperative functional outcomes were analyzed. The average age at the time of surgery was 4.49 ± 4.24 years, ranging from 5 months to 16 years, with 39.1% boys and 60.9% girls. The anterior, posterior, and mixed forms of PFV were observed in 12.5%, 4.2%, and 83.3% of cases, respectively. PFV was most commonly accompanied by cataracts (95.8%), followed by strabismus (33.3%), microphthalmia (25%), and both nystagmus and microcornea (16.7% each). There was a significant overall improvement in visual acuity, from 2.24 ± 0.26 to 1.11 ± 0.66 logMAR (p < 0.001). The findings of this study confirm that timely surgery leads to improved anatomical and functional outcomes in PFV, influenced by a range of factors, both evident and less apparent.