EPOS

European Paediatric Ophthalmological Society

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Retinopathy of prematurity: a retrospective case-control study in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Teixeira Susana 1, Santos Maria Jo 1, Nunes Sofia 2, Carreiro Helena 2, Machado M.C. 2, Esperancinha F.E. 1
1Hospital Fernando Fonseca - Ophthalmology Department, 2Hospital Fernando Fonseca - Paediatric Department

Purpose:To evaluate risk factors for the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in premature babies admitted to our unit. Methods:retrospective case-control study of VLBW or premature babies with 32 weeks gestation or less, admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit between 1998 and 2000. Infants who died or were transferred and were not screened for ROP were excluded. Premature babies that didn't developed ROP were used as controls. Statistical analysis were performed on SPSS 9.0 for Windows with a significant p < 0.05. Results:135 babies were included in the analysis with a mean gestational age of 29,27 weeks and a mean birth weight of 1188g. Study Group (SG) - 59 babies with ROP: 23 (39%) ROP I; 23 (39%) ROP II; 13 (22%) ROP III; 7 babies had plus disease. Control Group (CG)-76 babies without ROP. We found a statistical significative difference between the 2 groups in regard of: gestational age (27,8 vs 30,4 wks; p= 0,000), birth weight (1012 vs 1324,5 g; p= 0,000), Apgar index at 5 minutes (8,5 vs 9; p=0,009), use of surfactant (52,6% vs 47,4%; p=0,001), episodes of apnoea with bradycardia (67,9% vs 32,1%; p=0,000), total days of oxygen (39,5 vs 9,4 d; p= 0,000), total days of ventilation (12,7 vs 2,6 d; p=0,000), number of blood transfusions (5 vs 1,2; p=0,000), episodes of sepsis (0,8 vs 0,31; p=0,000), candida systemic infection (87,5% vs 12,5%; p=0,02) and indomethacin use (61,4% vs 38,6%; p=0,009). Conclusion:Like in other studies we found several risk factors for development of ROP, but after multivariate analysis lower birth weight and total days of O2 were the only independent variables. The other variables are probably related to the higher morbidity of lower birth weight babies.