Retinopathy of prematurity: Incidence and risk factor

With the advent of new technologies in neonatal health care, the mortality rate of infants have gone down drastically and has resulted in spike of ROP and its severity. Aim: To study risk factors for Retinopathy of prematurity and its incidence, in newborns at risk in SNCU of a tertiary care hospital in Bhopal. Study Design: This was a retrospective observational, hospital-based study. Materials and Methods: Infants with birth weight less than 1500gm and gestation age less than 34 weeks were screened after birth at 4 weeks for ROP or 31-33 weeks post conception age, whichever was later from February 2015 to June 2016. Infants with birth weight 1500gm to 2500 gm and gestation more than 34 weeks with additional risk factors were also screened. Statistical Analysis: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used for analysing data. The ROP incidence was described in simple proportion. For group comparisons, the chi-square (?2) test was. Probability (P) of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Result: 178 eyes of 89 infants were included in this study.33.70% eyes had some stage of ROP. In infants weighing more than 2500gm or with a gestational age more than 35 weeks no signs of ROP was found. Small for gestation, Low birth weight, septicaemia, Oxygen therapy, Ventilator support, Respiratory Distress syndrome, Apnoea and asphyxia were significant factors for ROP development. However mode of delivery, type of pregnancy, Blood transfusion and gender were not found to be significant risk factors for ROP development.