Retinopathy of prematurity: study of incidence, risk factors and outcome in level 3 neonatal intensive care unit in a tertiary care centre

Abstract

Background: Advancing technology in antenatal and neonatal care has resulted in better survival of preterm neonates in developing countries in the past few decades. This has resulted in an apparent increase in the incidence of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), which is the most important cause of preventable blindness in infants.Methods: A prospective clinical study was done for 18 months in 400 preterm babies less than 34 weeks of Gestational Age (GA) or less than 1750 gm of Birth Weight (BW). ROP screening was performed. The babies who developed any stage of ROP were taken as cases and the babies who did not have ROP were taken as controls. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (Version 20.0). p value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant.Results: Four hundred babies were thus examined. The overall incidence of ROP in the study group was 10.25% (41 babies). Out of them, 38 babies (92.6%) had stage-1 ROP and 3 babies (7.31%) had stage-2 ROP. three babies (7.31%) required laser treatment. Risk factor analysis revealed that gestational age at birth, low birth weight, need foroxygenation, RDS, clinical sepsis, HIE, AKI, NNS, resuscitation, apnea.Conclusions: Screening should be intensified in the presence of risk factors like resuscitation, oxygen requirement, apnoea and prolonged hospital stay, which can reduce the incidence of severe stages of ROP as shown by this study.