Incidence and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity in Sakaeo Province.

Abstract

Objective : To determine the incidence and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)

Method : All premature neonates with birth weight less than 2500 grams and/or gestational age less than 37 weeks who were born in the period from October 2004 to September 2006 and admitted in the intensive care unit or newborn unit of Sakaeo Crown Prince Hospital were enrolled. Patients were excluded from study if they had congenital eye anomalies, or died within 4 weeks of age, or were referred to other hospitals. They were examined for ROP either between 4-6 weeks postpartum or when they were ready to be discharged. Retrospective collection of data was done to find the incidence of ROP and its associated risk factors.The risk factors were then analyzed for their significance with Student-t test and Chi-square test using Statistics software program for computer.

Result : There were 85 neonates fulfilling the study protocol. ROP developed in 8 cases and all had gestational age under 32 weeks. The overall incidence of ROP was 9.4 percent (8/85), whereas it was higher at 17 percent (8/47) when only neonates with gestational age less than 32 weeks were included for calculation. The highest incidence was 100 percent (2/2) in the neonates with birth weight less than 1000
grams. The significant risk factors were low birth weight, low gestational age,blood transfusion therapy, long duration of oxygen therapy.

Conclusion : Although the incidence of ROP in this study was lower than those from tertiary centers, it was nearly similar to those reported from other general hospitals. ROP is considered a preventable disease with multifactorial causes. Awareness of the risk factors can be helpful in identifying the neonates at high risk of ROP, which can be reduced if the risk factors are eliminated.

Key words : retinopathy of prematurity, premature, birth weight