Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Recent reports indicate that the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) may be decreasing. We report the incidence of ROP and threshold ROP in an urban tertiary-care center. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 256 high-risk infants, examined between October 1997 and October 2001. The highest stage of ROP in the more severely affected eye was recorded. Infants were stratified by birthweight. Results: Of 95 infants with birthweight less than 1000 g, the incidence of ROP was: Stage 1, 20 infants (21%); Stage 2, 52 (55%); Stage 3, 9 (10%); Stage 4 or above, 0 (0%); and total ROP, 81 (85%). Of 52 infants with birthweight between 1000-1250 g, the incidence of ROP was: Stage 1, 23 (44%); Stage 2, 9 (17%); Stage 3 or above, 0 (0%); and total ROP, 32 (62%). Of 109 infants with birthweight greater than 1250 g, the incidence of ROP was: Stage 1, 32 (29%); Stage 2, 21 (19%); Stage 3, 2 (2%); Stage 4 or above, 0 (0%); and total ROP, 55 (50%). The incidence of ROP was 113/147 (77%) in infants less than 1251 g and 168/256 (66%) in all infants. The incidence of threshold ROP was 2/147 (1.4%) in infants less than 1251 g and 2/256 (0.8%) in all infants. No infant in this series developed retinal detachment. Compared with data reported by Blair et al. (J AAPOS 2001;5:118-122), our incidence of ROP is statistically higher (p < 0.001), but our incidence of Stage 3 ROP or higher is not statistically different (p = 0.83), and our incidence of threshold ROP is not statistically different (p = 0.47). Compared with data reported by Rowland et al. (BJO 2001;85:933-935), our incidence of Stage 3 ROP or higher is not statistically different (p = 0.25). Conclusion: At our urban tertiary-care institution, the incidence of ROP over this 48-month period is higher than some reports from other centers. The increased survival rate of extremely small infants may explain this difference. However, the rate of threshold ROP remains low.
Keywords: 572 retinopathy of prematurity • 354 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence