Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on screening of premature babies for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).Methods: Medical records of infants who underwent ROP screening at Ordu University, Training and Research Hospital were reviewed, retrospectively. Sixty premature babies who were not brought into their follow-up visits and reported to the Child, Adolescent, Woman and Reproductive Health (CEKUS) unit between March 2020 and March 2021 were included. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to the timing of CEKUS reports; Group 1: March-May 2020, Group 2: June-August 2020, Group 3: September-November 2020, and Group 4: December 2020-February 2021.Results: A total number of 60 babies were reported to the CEKUS unit between March 2020 and March 2021. While 18% of the patients were consulted from our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), 82% of the infants were referred from other NICUs. The parents of only 17 (28%) of all patients were living in Ordu, additionally. Compared to the total number of patients reported to the CEKUS unit in the last year before the onset of the pandemic, a decrease in compliance with the appointments was observed after the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in Turkey (p<0.001). Adherence to the appointments increased in the period when COVID-19 patients decreased. When the COVID-19 cases began to rise again significantly after November (Group 4), the number of CEKUS reports increased correspondingly. However, there was no significant correlation between the number of CEKUS reports and the total number of COVID-19 cases in the groups (p = 0.600, r = 0.400).Conclusion: In addition to the difficulty of screening for ROP since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the follow up of babies who are not brought in has become a serious problem. A decrease in adherence to appointments was observed after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. An institution such as our CEKUS unit may help the ophthalmologists and neonatologists to complete all screening sessions. Most babies that were not brought in to ROP screening, were also the ones referred from other NICUs and those who lived in neighboring cities, in our study. Therefore, increasing the number of ROP units may also prevent the non-adherence of the parents.