Incidence of retinopathy of prematurity and some related factors in premature infants born at Amir - al- Momenin hospital in Semnan, Iran

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a retinal damage in preterm and low weight born infants, which can lead to blindness. Therefore, in this study we tried to investigate the probability of ROP incidence and some other related factors in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Amir-al-Momenin hospital in Semnan. This study included 270 preterm infants with gestational age less than 37 weeks or birth weight less than 2000gr. The infants were treated with different concentrations of oxygen, and at 32-33 weeks of corrected gestational age or 4-6 weeks after birth were examined for ROP by using an indirect ophthalmoscope 55.2% infants were male. The lowest gestational age was 28 week and the highest was 36. 21.5% of premature infants were weighed less than 1500gr and only 2.6% of them received more than 60% oxygen concentration. Incidence of ROP in these neonates was 1.1%. The incidence of ROP in infants with birth weight up to 1500g was 5.2%. No ROP development was detected in infants above 1500g. The relationship between birth weight and the incidence of ROP was significant (P= 0.010). Also, the incidence of ROP in infants who received oxygen concentration up to 60% was 0.4%, and in those who received oxygen concentration more than 60% was 28.6%. The relationship between oxygen concentration and the incidence of ROP was significant (P=0.002). There was no significant relation between gender, gestational age and the incidence of ROP. Our findings show that the incidence of ROP in this region is considerably lower than that in other regions of Iran and the world. The probable reasons might be suitable oxygen therapy in neonatal intensive care unit or death of infants at very low gestational age in this center. Nevertheless, the cause of this serious disease in neonates warrants further investigation and assessments