The incidence of retinopathy of prematurity in a tertiary care center in Turkey

INTRODUCTION: The objective of our study was to determine the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity in our hospital, which gives tertiary health services.
METHODS: In this retrospective study, the medical files of the infants, who were born before the 36th gestational age and applied for the examination of retinopathy of prematurity between 2014 and 2017 to Istanbul Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Training and Research Hospital, were investigated. The birthweight, gestational age, type of delivery, the development of retinopathy of prematurity were recorded.
RESULTS: The mean gestational age and mean birthweight of 2913 infants, who were screened for retinopathy of prematurity, were 32.3±2.9 (22-36) weeks and 1846 ± 580 g (360 - 4300) respectively. 48.7 % of the patients were females and 51.3 % were males. 32.4 % of the patients had retinopathy of prematurity at any stage. 8.8 % of the infants had severe retinopathy of prematurity and were treated accordingly. The mean gestational age and the mean gestational weight of the infants in this group were 28.0±2.6 weeks (22-35) and 1171.9±417.5 g (360-2500) respectively. The mean birthweight was lower in the severe retinopathy of prematurity group compared to the group with no retinopathy of prematurity development. 28 infants (0.9 %) with a birthweight over 2500 g (2502-3740) had only mild retinopathy of prematurity and improved spontaneously.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: As it was determined that the mean gestational age and weight were lower in infants with retinopathy of prematurity than the infants with no retinopathy of prematurity development, so the importance of the low birthweight and the gestational age was confirmed as risk factors for retinopathy of prematurity development.