[Risk factors of 3rd stage retinopathy of prematurity progression]

Retinopathy of prematurity is a vasoproliferative, multifactorial disease of retina affecting the preterm neonates. Purpose of the study was to assess the association between a range of clinical features and the development of the stage 3 ROP. The studies comprised 79 preterm infants with diagnosed 3rd stage of ROP and 1117 preterm neonates without ROP as a control group. The analysis included the clinical data of patients--gestational age, birth weight, presence of hypotrophy, Apgar score, duration of oxygen therapy, ventilation and phototherapy. Among the potential risk factors, hypotrophy and duration of phototherapy had no significant influence on the development of 3rd stage ROP. High risk of development of 3rd stage ROP was observed in neonates born before 28th week of gestation, weighing at birth less than 1000 g. The significant risk factors were also the asphyxia, duration of ventillation exceeding 30 days and oxygen therapy longer than 40 days.