EYE DROP INSTILLATION BY PARENTS AT HOME TO FACILITATE OUTPATIENT EYE EXAMINATION FOR RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY

Purpose of Study Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the abnormal development of retinal vessels in preterm infants which can lead to severe visual impairment or blindness. Many premature infants require ophthalmology follow-up if the retinae have not fully matured at the time of discharge. Ophthalmology follow-up is crucial as these infants are at risk for poor visual development, especially if changes that require intervention are not detected in a timely manner. Adequate pupillary dilation is necessary for an optimal eye exam and requires installation of eye drops at least 1 hour prior to the exam in the doctor's office. This wait time increases the likelihood of exposure to other people and infection. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our NICU adopted a discharge policy of teaching parents how to instill eyes drops to their infants at home before leaving for the eye appointment, with the goal of reducing the wait time in the office prior to the examination. The goal of this study is to evaluate if instillation of eye drops by parents at home before going to the office will provide adequate pupillary dilation for optimal ROP exam of premature infants in the outpatient setting and reduce wait time in the ophthalmology office. Methods Used Parents of all preterm infants needing follow-up ROP exam were provided with and taught how to instill eye drops at home before leaving for the ophthalmology appointment. Parents were given a paper log and documented the time and number of eye drops instilled. The ophthalmology office then documented check-in time, time of exam and adequacy of pupillary dilatation. A sample log is included (figure 1). Summary of Results Of the 14 individual eyes that were dilated, 10 were adequately dilated when eye drops were instilled by parents. 2 eyes received only one eye drop but were adequately dilated. 2 eyes did not adequately dilate with two drops in each eye and required three drops prior to the subsequent follow-up. 2 eyes received two drops but did not dilate adequately. The average time from check-in to eye exam was 38 minutes. Conclusions As premature infants are at higher risk for infection, a process to allow for efficient outpatient evaluation is necessary. 71% of eyes were adequately dilated when parents instilled the eye drops prior to the first follow-up appointment. Of the eyes that were not adequately dilated, when parents were instructed to increase the number of drops prior to the second follow-up, both eyes were adequately dilated. Our study shows that parents are capable of instilling eye drops to provide optimal dilation for the ROP exam, thus decreasing the time spent in the outpatient office. (Table Presented).

COVID-19 Infected Staff during the First Wave at General Out-Patient Clinic of Barau Dikko University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna: Brief Communication

COVID 19 viral infection is a rapidly spreading droplets infection that has a global impact. Kaduna is one of the states in Nigeria with a high number of COVID-19 infected individuals. Some staff of Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna (BDTH) were infected with COVID-19 during the initial period of the pandemic. Most of the infected staff were from the General Out-Patient Clinic (GOPC), as it was the only Department with up to 11 staff infected during this initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had led to the temporary closure of the Department. The aim of this paper is to characterize the GOPC Staff that tested positive to COVID-19 following previous contact with COVID-19 patients that were seen at the GOPC during the first wave of the pandemic. This is with the view to consider GOPC staff as high risk and frontline health workers for COVID 19. It was a retrospective study, and data were collected from the record of all the staff of the GOPC who were traced to have had contact with the COVID-19 positive patients and were also tested positive. Eleven (34%) out of the 32 staff were infected with COVID-19 at the GOPC. Only 1 staff was above 50 years. Most of them had mild symptoms and had side effects from the antiviral drugs. Staff of the GOPC are at risk of COVID-19 infection and should be considered frontline workers for COVID-19.

A newborn with coronavirus (COVID-19) disease: A brief report.

There are few neonates reported with COVID-19 disease. To date there is no clear evidence of vertical transmission of the virus before birth. We report a 4-day old infant born to an asymptomatic mother who developed infection with SARS-CoV-2, likely from contact with parents during the postnatal period.