The present study evaluated the developmental characteristics and causes of nasal retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

A total of 111 eyes from 56 ROP-affected infants who had been treated with laser photocoagulation by retina specialists at the nasal site were examined. The gestational age at birth and diagnosis, location of the lesion, time, and number of laser photocoagulation therapies for nasal and temporal ROP were analyzed.

Thirty-three cases (29.7%) were diagnosed with nasal ROP. The mean gestational age at birth was 28.43 weeks for nasal ROP, and 29.44 weeks for temporal ROP ( p = 0.022). Additionally, the average gestational age of infants who received laser photocoagulation was 36.61 weeks for nasal ROP, and 39.71 weeks for temporal ROP ( p = 0.001). The average number of ROP laser photocoagulation trials was 2936.03 for nasal ROP, and 1611.83 for temporal ROP ( p = 0.0001). No case was observed with a wider avascular area in the nasal retina than in the temporal retina. Additionally, compared to the temporal ROP, the nasal ROP showed significant difference in progression rates, 33.3% in the nasal group and 8.97% in the temporal group ( p = 0.001).

Nasal ROP was due to the ROP lesions developing earlier in the nasal than the temporal retina, although not due to any atypically wider nasal avascular area. In these cases, nasal ROP showed more disease progression compared to temporal ROP.