Prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity in Brunei Darussalam

To identify the prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) among preterm neonates admitted to Department of Neonatology, RIPAS hospital, Brunei Darussalam.

We studied 67 preterm infants fulfilling the eligibility criteria for ROP screening. All infants studied were admitted to the Department of Neonatology, RIPAS Hospital, within a period of one year. Birth weight (BW), gestational age (GA), corrected age at each review, initial and final diagnoses and number of reviews required was recorded for each infant. Infants were followed up two weekly until they reach a corrected age of 40 weeks or complete vascularization was noted. Prevalence of ROP was identified. Descriptive analysis, regression analysis and independent-sample t-test were used to statistically check for differences between ROP and non-ROP groups.

A total number of 201 ROP screenings were carried out for 67 preterm infants. Males outnumbered females (56.7%). The mean number of reviews per child was (3.19±1.1) times (range: 1-6 times), the mean GA among the preterm babies examined was (29.5±2.6) weeks (range: 23-36 weeks), and the mean BW was 1300±500g (range: 660-3600g). The prevalence of ROP among the examined infants was 34.8%. Prevalence of threshold disease that required laser treatment was 25.4%. Prevalence of ROP among those with extremely low BW was 86.7% compared to 27.8% in those with very low BW. Respiratory distress and congenital heart diseases were significantly associated with higher incidence of ROP.

Lower BW, lower GA and female gender are associated with higher risk of developing ROP among preterm infants in Brunei Darussalam.