Features of ocular prosthetics in children after retinoblastoma

Purpose. To identify the peculiarities of ocular prosthetics in children after retinoblastoma. Material and methods. This study involved 156 patients (84 men, 72 women; 170 eyes) who applied for ocular prosthetics in LLC Eye Prosthetics Center, Moscow, from September 2022 to September 2024. The age of the patients ranged from 45 days to 12 years (mean 72.75 months). Methods of external examination and biomicroscopy of the oculomotor stump and conjunctival cavity were used to evaluate the cosmetic and functional result. Results. The analysis of cosmetic result and discomfort of patients at the follow-up appointment showed that patients who followed the recommendations on eye prosthesis and conjunctival cavity care complained less often about swelling, conjunctival hyperemia (36.7%) in comparison with the groups of patients who did not follow the doctor’s recommendations (54.5% and 39.4% respectively). Feelings of dryness, foreign body sensation are more often complained by patients after radiation therapy 81.8% and 76.4%, compared to patients who did not undergo radiation therapy 36.4% and 30.3% respectively. This is because a large group of patients (49 patients) have lagophthalmos after prior radiation therapy. Complaints about mucopurulent discharge are almost 2 times less in the first group (32.7%) than in the second group (75.8%). And in patients who follow the doctor’s recommendations, mucopurulent discharge is noted only in 18.3% of cases.Conclusions. Step-bystep compliance with all recommendations for the care of the eye prosthesis and the conjunctival cavity helps to improve the wetting of the prosthesis, eliminate inflammatory processes, and also increases its service life to the recommended values. In addition, it contributes to achieving higher functional and aesthetic results of ocular prosthetics in this group of patients. Keywords: retinoblastoma, eye prosthetics, pediatric oncology