Abstract
Purpose: :
The aim of the study was to evaluate screening for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Sweden and to investigate if modifications of screening guidelines could be performed.
Methods: :
SWEDROP is a national quality register for screening of ROP. All infants in Sweden born before a gestational age (GA) of 32 weeks are screened for ROP in the neonatal period. After ethical approval, data from infants registered in SWEDROP during 2008 and 2009 were extracted from the register. Comparison with data from a national perinatal quality register (PNQ) was performed.
Results: :
In SWEDROP, there were 1791 infants born before a gestational age of 32 weeks during 2008 and 2009 and surviving until the first eye examination. Two of these infants died before a postmenstrual age (PMA) of 34 weeks. Another 70 infants were registered in PNQ, but not in SWEDROP, resulting in a drop-out frequency of 3.8 % (70/1871).In the study cohort, 24.3% of the infants had ROP; 15.8% mild ROP and 8.5% severe ROP. Treatment was performed in 4.4 % of the infants, none of whom had a GA at birth of more than 28 weeks. Nine infants with a GA of more than 28 weeks at birth developed ROP stage 3, which regressed spontaneously.The total number of performed examinations of the infants in the study cohort was 9329 and the mean number of examinations of each infant was 5.2 (range 1 - 30). The total number of examinations of infants with a GA of 31 weeks at birth was 964.
Conclusions: :
SWEDROP, a national quality register for ROP in Sweden, has coverage of 96%. Analyses of data of SWEDROP from 2008 and 2009 show that our present screening criterion results in a large number of eye examinations of infants with little risk of severe ROP. A reduction of the upper limit for screening for ROP with one week, including only infants with a GA of less than 31+0 weeks at birth would save many infants from unnecessary examinations and significantly reduce the burden of the screening ophthalmologists.
Keywords: retinopathy of prematurity