Risk factors associated with retinopathy of prematurity: A study from Oman

In a prospective study at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, out of 73 premature infants screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), 25 (34 per cent) developed the disease. Nine significant risk factors were found to be associated with the development of ROP. These factors were lower birth weight, shorter gestational age, apnoea, top-up blood transfusion, mechanical ventilation, receiving sodium bicarbonate for correction of metabolic acidosis, total parenteral nutrition, intraventricular haemorrhage, and sepsis. However, with stepwise logistic regression analysis, only birth weight, gestational age, and total parenteral nutrition were found to be independently associated with the development of ROP. The severity of ROP was significantly inversely proportional to both birth weight and gestational age. The tendency for the association of some risk factors to disappear when subjected to more stringent analysis (logistic regression) suggests that this association is more likely to be due to the length of treatment (particularly oxygen exposure and mechanical ventilation) and the overall severity of initial illness.