Retinopathy of prematurity in Asian Indian babies weighing greater than 1250 grams at birth: ten year data from a tertiary care center in a developing country

Abstract

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an important cause of childhood blindness in developing countries.

Aim: To report the spectrum of ROP and associated risk factors in babies weighing > 1250 g at birth in a developing country.

Setting and design: Institutional, retrospective, non-randomized, observational clinical case series.

Materials and methods: Retrospective analysis (10 years) of 275 eyes (138 babies) with ROP.

Statistical analysis: Qualitative data with the Chi-square test. Quantitative data using the unpaired t test or the ANOVA and further tested using multivariate logistic regression.

Results: The mean birth weight was 1533.9 g (range 1251 to 2750 g) and the mean period of gestation was 30.9 weeks (range 26 to 35). One hundred and twenty-four of 275 eyes (45.1%) had threshold or worse ROP. Risk factors for threshold or worse disease were, 'outborn babies' ( P P = 0.007) and exchange transfusion ( P = 0.003). The sensitivity of the American and British screening guidelines to pick up threshold or worse ROP in our study group was 82.4% and 77.4% respectively.

Conclusions: Severe ROP is often encountered in babies weighing greater than 1250 g at birth in developing countries. Western screening guidelines may require modifications before application in developing countries.