Aggressive Posterior Retinopathy of Prematurity in a Premature Male Infant

Abstract

A premature male infant was born at 30 weeks' gestation with a birth weight of 1,700 g in a rural hospital. He was diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome and received continuous positive airway pressure treatment for 26 days. At 26 days after birth, the patient was transferred to our hospital for further evaluation and management. A comprehensive eye examination revealed a stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) involving zone 2 in both eyes. The patient was recommended to a provincial-level eye hospital for emergency laser therapy. Five months after birth, the feedback from the eye hospital showed that the patient had a high risk of blindness in both eyes. Our case report shows that delaying first screening examination increases the possibility of developing aggressive posterior ROP in infants with ROP. Doctors in rural hospitals should be aware of this possibility and trained for early screening and treatment in high-risk infants.

Keywords: Blindness; Premature infant; Retinopathy of prematurity.

Fig. 1

Fundus photograph of stage 3 ROP in the right eye. The temporal posterior pole vessels show tortuosity and dilatation (arrows) and scattered hemorrhage throughout retina.

Fig. 2

Fundus photograph of stage 3 ROP and large vascular loops in left eye. a There are abnormal dilatation and tortuosity of posterior pole vessels (arrows). b Several linear hemorrhages and vascular loops are visible (arrows).