The management of unilateral retinoblastoma without primary enucleation
D. H. Abramson, R. F. Marks, R. M. Ellsworth, P. Tretter and F. D. Kitchin
Sixty-six patients were treated "conservatively" for unilateral
retinoblastoma. Forty-eight of 57 (84%) were treated primarily with
unilateral radiation, one patient was treated with a cobalt plaque, and
eight patients were treated with either cryopexy or xenon arc
photocoagulation. With a median follow-up of 73 months, there have been no
deaths. Five of 39 eyes that were in groups I to III have been salvaged.
Virtually all eyes in groups IV and V (12 of 14) came to enucleation. The
age at diagnosis for patients with a positive family history was early (2.5
months), and the patients had a greater number of individual tumors in one
eye (2.4), compared with those without a positive family history (27
months, 1.2 tumors per eye). When unilateral retinoblastoma is detected at
an early age, the most common sign is strabismus, not leukokoria.
