engleski

Prevalence of Severe Retinopathy of Prematurity in a Geographically Defined Population in Croatia

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of stage III of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) among newborns of birth weight <1500 g and gestational age (GA) 32 weeks, and to compare these prevalences during two time periods (1998–2002 and 2003–2007). The investigation was conducted at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital in Rijeka, Croatia. The screening for ROP was performed by an ophthalmologist using a binocular indirect ophthalmoscope. Over a period of 10 years, there were 28, 627 liveborn newborns, with 136 (0.48%) premature newborns with a birth weights <1500 g and 226 (0.79%) newborns with GA at birth 32 weeks. The proportions of survivors among newborns with birth weights <1500 g (51.1% vs.70.5%) and among newborns with GA at birth 32 weeks (67.9% vs. 77.0%) were significantly higher in the later period. During the period 2003–2007, the proportion examined for ROP was higher among newborns with birth weight <1500 g (52.9% vs. 97.1%) and among newborns with GA at birth 32 weeks (46.5% vs. 96.9%). The prevalence of stage III ROP was significantly lower in 2003–2007 compared to that in 1998–2002 among newborns with birth weight <1500 g (30.6% vs. 14.0%) and newborns with GA at birth  32 weeks (22.4% vs. 8.8%). The prevalence of total ROP among newborns was significantly lower in 2003–2007 compared with 1998–2002. This decrease in prevalence may be explained by advances in neonatal intensive care unit, increased survival of very low birth weight infants and carefully timed retinal examinations.

preterm infants ; prevalence ; retinopathy of prematurity ; Croatia

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