Incidence of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) in Low Birth Weight Newborns

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a common cause of blindness and accounts for up to 10% of childhood blindness in developed countries. Also Before surfactant became available in the NICU, an incidence of 11% to 60% was reported in the VLBW population. However, there are few studies on the incidence of ROP among low-birth-weight (LBW) infants in Iran and the aim of this study is determined the incidence of ROP in LBW infants. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study. In this study we screened 152 LBW infants admitted at Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, between October 2013 and October 2015. We gathered patients information from their files and they examined by neonatologist and ophthalmologist. Finally we analyzed the data with T-test and square tes. Results: in our study, 152 LBW infants, including 79 males and 73 females, were evaluated. The mean gestational age was 30.32 + -2.84 (26-37). In this study we identified 31 patients (20.39% ) with ROP. 19 patients with 26 to 29 weeks gestational age and 9 patients between 30 to 33 weeks and just 3 patients between 33 to 37 weeks of gestational age. However, there were no meaningful relationship was found with gender. (P=0.395) Conclusion: ROP is rising in Iran and low birth weight is an important risk factor for ROP and screening program is very important in this group of newborns.