The risk factors and progression of retinopathy of prematurity in extremely low birth weight infants

Abstract

The number of premature babies, including those with extremely low birth weight (ELBW), is steadily growing every year. In surviving ELBW infants, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) more often develops, which has a more severe course, depending not only on the degree of immaturity and somatic burden of premature babies but also on the quality of nursing. The aim of this work is to determine the risk factors for ROP progression in profoundly premature ELBW infants to optimize the tactics of their treatment. Materials and methods. We studied the case histories of 155 surviving premature ELBW infants with ROP of various stages treated in perinatal centres of the Belgorod region in 2014-2019. Results. In premature ELBW infants, ROP of varying severity was found to be diagnosed in 90% of cases. The anamnesis of the mothers of the examined patients with moderate and severe ROP was dominated by unfavorable preceding pregnancies (miscarriages, silent miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies, medical abortions).The need for preterm infants in mechanical ventilation was established to depend on the severity of ROP and the duration of mechanical ventilation (p < 0.05). Frequent, not always justified red blood transfusions leading to the replacement of fetal haemoglobin with adult haemoglobin are also essential factors in ROP progression.