Incidence and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity in Babol, North of Iran.

Objective: To determine the incidence and risk factors for the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) among premature infants.

Methods: New born infants with gestational age < 37 weeks were studied from October 2004 to April 2008. Potential risk factors, like gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), supplemental oxygen therapy, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, blood transfusion, and phototherapy were assessed.

Results: One hundred seventy-three newborn infants were evaluated. Mean BW +/- standard deviation (SD) was 1680.64 +/- 462.5 g and Mean GA +/- SD was 32.24 +/- 2.36 weeks. Incidence of ROP was 19% including 11.5% in prethreshold and 7.5% in threshold stages. The incidence of ROP was 47.3% for infants with gestational age 2000 gr. Blood transfusion (Odds Ratio [OR] = 2.45, P = 0.031), phototherapy (OR = 2.405, P = 0.038), gestational age (OR = 14.2, P = 0001) and ARDS (OR = 2.1, P = 0.047) were associated to ROP. With multivariate logistic regression analysis, low GA and blood transfusion were related to ROP.

Conclusions: The results show that the incidence of ROP is relatively high in our region. Low GA, low BW, phototherapy, ARDS, and blood transfusion were the main risk factors for development of ROP.