Analysis of ?lag time? in the diagnosis of retinoblastoma in Ukraine

Introduction. Early diagnosis of oncological diseases, particularly eye tumors, in a great measure determines the success of treatment, as well the prognosis for af?fected organ and patient's life preservation. Aim. Analysis of ?lag time? in the diagnosis of retinoblastoma in Ukraine. Materials and Methods. The paper presents the results of a retrospective analysis of medical records of223 children with retinoblastoma (296 eyes) were treated at the Pediatric Ophthalmopathology Department of SI ?The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of NAMS of Ukraine? in the period from 1996 till 2004 and from 2009 till 2013. The first symptoms of the disease, which were the reason of visit to a doctor and symptoms at the initial examination at the special?ized department, interval between first symptoms fixation by parents and primary doctor's examination (primary lag time) and term from initial application until the final diagnosis (secondary lag time) have been analysed. Results. Leykokoria and strabismus were the most common symptoms noted by parents first. The positive dynamics of rates with primary and secondary lag time duration reduction in recent years was revealed. Conclusions. The retrospective analysis have shown the important role of parents' attention to the health of their child in the problem of early diagnosis of retinoblas-toma. The ways of pediatric ophthalmic oncology service for children with retinoblastoma improvement consist in organization of effective preventive examinations of children, especially of younger age group, wide parents informing about the retinoblastoma symptoms and their early detection methods, improvement of profes-sional skills of primary care physicians ? pediatricians, neonatologists, district ophthalmologists regarding diagnosis of this pathology.