Abstract
Purpose :
Analyzing the practices at our institution for screening, treatment and follow-up of patients with retinopathy of prematurity during their hospitalization at the neonatal intensive care unit. We performed a retrospective review of all patients examined in the neonatal intensive care unit of our institution for retinopathy of prematurity between August 2009 and November 2018.
Methods :
Data was extracted from a computerized database in which information about all patients seen in the neonatal intensive care unit of our institution has been continuously updated since 2008. We computed a total of 1493 patients and 6648 exams in our database
Results :
A proportion of 15.26% of our patients had 20 to 26 weeks of gestation age, 71.08% had 26 to 32 weeks, 13.25% had 32 to 38 weeks and 0.40% had 38 to 44 weeks. None of our patients developed disease severity of stage 4 or 5 during their follow-up. The average follow-up interval for stage 1, 2 and 3 respectively was 10.28 +/- 7.34 days, 6.58 +/- 2.44 and 3.97 +/- 2.39. The average follow-up interval in a subgroup of patients for whom disease progression was noted between two visits was 9.48 +/- 4.20 days. There was no statistical difference between the average follow-up intervals among our team of attending physicians in this subgroup of patients. Disease progression occurred between 2 and 8 weeks of age in 21.19% of cases, between 8 and 16 weeks of age in 66.38% of cases and between 16 and 24 weeks in 11.33% of cases. Patients for whom laser treatment was indicated had 23 to 27 weeks of gestation age.
Conclusions :
Progression was recorded between follow-up intervals of less than two weeks in average which highlights the importance of periodic follow-up. The fact none of our patients developed stage 4 or 5 disease is an encouraging finding.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.