The Most Important Factors for Retinopathy of Prematurity in Preterm Infants / 대한주산의학회잡지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: There are many known risk factors for a retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). We analyzed the most important risk factors and predictors of ROP among them. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), between January 2010 and December 2012 at Gangnam CHA Medical Center, Seoul. . All infants (n=185) were hospitalized for more than 28 days, received eye examination for ROP and showed one of the following criteria: birth weight (BW) below 1,500 g, gestational age (GA) below 32 weeks, or oxygen treatment (> or =40% oxygen for more than 3 days). We divided the infants into the Non-ROP group (n=162) and the ROP group (n=23, more than stage 1) and analyzed group comparisons, risk factors and the importance of each factor of ROP by SPSS 13.0. RESULTS: Risk factors were duration of oxygen uses [Odds ratio (OR): 1.064, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.007-1.125, P=0.028] and intravenous (IV) steroid (OR: 1.234, 95% CI: 1.000-1.523, P=0.049) by multi-factor adjustment. The most important factor was oxygenation duration. The following factors were time to full enteral feedings, and IV steroid duration. CONCLUSION: The incidence of ROP will be decreased if we can reduce the length of oxygen uses, IV steroid use and advance the full feeding achievement.