Título

RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY IN AMAZONAS, BRAZIL: ESTIMATES OF PREVALENCE

Objetivo

Purpose: To present estimates of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) frequency in Amazonas, Brazil.

Método

Methods:It was conducted a cross-sectional study using secondary database. Data regarding the number of very low birth weight neonates and neonatal death, in the years 2011 and 2012, were obtained from a public database, DataSus. Premature newborns at risk were defined as weighing less than 1500 g (very low birth weight) and/or with less than 32 weeks of gestational age, based on ROP screening and treatment Brazilian Guidelines, which recommends screening of all newborn with birth weight ≤1.500 g and/or with ≤32 weeks of gestational age. Newborns that died before 28 days of age were excluded form the study. The estimates of ROP prevalence in Amazonas and the frequency of those who would need treatment were based on national studies. Severe visual impairment and blindness estimates were based on data from the Multicenter Trial of Cryotherapy for Retinopathy of Prematurity Cooperative Group (CRYO-ROP), which shows 64% of unfavorable visual acuity outcome (equal to or worse than 20/200) in the control group of the study that had threshold disease and was not treated.

Resultado

Results: The mean number of newborns at risk for ROP development each year was 1068, 415 of those would have ROP at any degree and approximately 76 newborns would necessitate treatment each year. It’s estimated that 48 children/year would progress to unfavorable visual acuity outcomes without adequate treatment.

Conclusão

Conclusion: Retinopathy of prematurity stands out as an important cause of avoidable blindness in Amazonas, and it may have affected a mean of 415 children per year. A local program for screening and treatment of the population at risk is necessary in order to avoid blindness from ROP, providing care to the public health system users that contemplates equality and universality of access.