Abstract
Purpose :
To report the prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in a ophthalmological reference center in Mexico
Methods :
Cross-sectional, observational, and descriptive study. Collected data from January 2020 to October 2023. We selected all the files that met the criteria for prematurity according to WHO; they were classified into ROP patients and non-ROP, and the demographic characteristics of each group were analyzed. Descriptive statistics was used.
Results :
Seventy-one patients were studied, the prevalence of ROP in this study was 18.3%. The main comorbidity was acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); the mean number of corrected gestation weeks (CGW) was 39.01±2.8 weeks. Among the ROP patients, the mean gestational age was 29.4±1.7 weeks, 76% were male, and the mean body weight (BW) was 1.17±.2 kg. The main comorbidity was ARDS; the mean CGW was 38.4±2.4 with a mean arrival time (MAT) of 9 weeks. The affected eyes were left in 15.3%, right in 7.6%, and both eyes in 76.9%. Patients were classified in 76.9% ROP type 1 and 23.07% ROP type 2 according to ETROP, 53.7% of patients required intravitreal (IV) anti-VEGF treatment, and 7.6% required vitrectomy. Among the IV anti-VEGF patients, the mean number of weeks of gestation at birth was 29.2± 1.7, and the mean CGW was 38.4±3.2. All patients required a single dose of intravitreal anti-VEGF, having treatment success in all cases. Aflibercept 1 mg was administered since no standardized pediatric dose was available at baseline. None of the patients treated with anti-VEGF suffered systemic adverse effects at the end of their follow-up at 52 CGW.
Conclusions :
There is a similar prevalence of ROP within preterm infants in our center compared to the prevalence of first world countries ranging from 9.3-39.6%. ROP patients had a MAT of 9 weeks, reflecting a delay in assessment compared with non-ROP patients. Delay may be due to a need for more information to the parents by the institution discharging the preterm newborn patient, prolonged hospitalization, etc. The patients did not need a second dose because they had a 100% treatment success rate, unlike those reported in the FIREFLEYE study, probably due to the small sample size. However, there could be a more significant effect due to the dose administered.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.