Incidence of retinopathy of prematurity at two tertiary centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To review the incidence and risk factors for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) King Faisal Specialist Hospital and King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Material and methods: In this prospective cohort study, preterm infants who were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit from 2012 to 2013 were evaluated for ROP. Inclusion criteria were, preterm infants with gestational age <32 weeks and/or birth weight <1500 g. The risk factors that were assessed were intraventricular hemorrhage, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), sepsis and hydrocephalus. The relative risk was used to measure the risk and logistic regression was used to adjust for confounding factors. Statistical significance was indicated by p < 0.05.

Results: Thirty-one of 92 (33.7%) preterm infants had unilateral or bilateral ROP. The mean gestational age was 26.7 weeks (range, 24-29 weeks) and mean birth weight was 0.843 kg (range, 0.606-1.450 kg). There were 7 infants with stage 1 ROP, 10 infants with stage 2, 14 infants with stage 3 and no cases of stage 4 or 5. Twelve (13%) infants had plus disease and received laser therapy within 72 h of diagnosis. Statistically significant risk factors for ROP were PDA (p = 0.0005) and intraventricular hemorrhage (p = 0.0005).

Conclusion: The incidence of ROP was 33.7% and risk factors were PDA and intraventricular hemorrhage. Laser therapy was very effective for the treatment of plus disease and preventing progression of ROP. Clinicians should assess for potential risk factors when monitoring premature infants.