Rate and Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants with Gestational Age ≤28 Weeks in Eastern China

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the incidence and clinical characteristics of ROP in extremely preterm (EP) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants in eastern China.

Patients and Methods

This retrospective study included 104 infants with a birth weight (BW) ≤ 1000 g and gestational age (GA) ≤ 28 weeks, who were admitted to the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University over 10 years. The infants were examined for ROP with RetCam. Infants with type 1 ROP and aggressive posterior ROP (AP-ROP) were treated. The risk factors evaluated were GA and BW.

Results

Mean GA was 26.63 ± 0.88 weeks and mean BW was 892.39 ± 108.06 g. Of the 104 infants, 83 (79.8%) developed ROP, three (2.9%) had AP-ROP, 14 (13.5%) had type 1 ROP, and 10 (9.6%) had type 2 ROP. The proportions of infants with BW ≤750 g and 751–1000 g were 8.7% and 91.3%, respectively, and the incidences of severe ROP in these infants were 22.2% and 15.8%, respectively. The infants with severe ROP had a mean GA of 26.56 ± 0.68 weeks and mean BW of 860.00 ± 163.48 g, and 47.1% of severe ROP occurred in infants with a GA of 26 weeks. However, multivariate logistic regression showed that the severity of ROP was not directly inversely related to GA or BW in this study population.

Conclusion

In EP and ELBW Chinese infants, who were admitted to the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University, the development of ROP was more frequent and the incidence of severe ROP that progressed to the stage that required treatment was high.

Keywords:

• retinopathy of prematurity
• extremely low birth weight
• extremely preterm
• risk factors

Acknowledgments

We thank the Retina and Vitreous Department of the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University for their collaboration with the diagnosis and treatment of ROP, as well as their suggestions and comments of our research.

Data Sharing Statement

The data and materials used in this study are available from the corresponding author.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University, and all the patients’ guardians provided written informed consent.

Consent for Publication

All the patients’ guardians provided written informed consent so that the results could be analyzed for scientific publication.

Author Contributions

All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; agreed to submit to the current journal; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. The manuscript is approved by all authors for publication.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest for this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81570855, 81770944) and National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholar of China (81400410).