Pattern and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity in tertiary care centre

Abstract

Retinopathy of prematurity is one of the commonest cause of blindness in sick neonates exposed to excessive oxygen following NICU admissions. The present study was thus conducted to assess the pattern and risk factors associated with incidence of retinopathy of prematurity.A retrospective record based study was conducted at tertiary care centre between 1st July 2017 to 30thMay 2020 were screened for ROP. Baseline characteristics and risk factors for ROP were assessed. The zone and stage of ROP were categorized as per the International classification of ROP along with iris neovascularisation and plus disease as per the revised international classification of retinopathy of prematurity (ICROP) preplus disease criteria. Data was entered in excel sheet and analysed using SPSS software version 20.Majority of neonates belonged to gestational age of 28 to 31 weeks (58.8%) and 51.2% neonates had birthweight of 1.5 to 2 kg. Male preponderance was observed with male: female ratio of 1.75:1. Amongst the various risk factors, the occurrence of ROP was highly significantly associated with gestational age and birthweight (p<0.01). Subgroup analysis revealed that aggressive posterior ROP (APROP) contributed significantly to Type I ROP in 11.1% (3) cases. And the observed difference in gestational age and birthweight between APROP and other cases of ROP were statistically highly significant (p<0.01).Early and timely screening of ROP for all high risk neonates especially low birth weight and neonates with small gestational age should be mandatory as these are the most significant risk factors associated with ROP in present study.