Open AccessOperational guidelines for ROP in India: A summary
Author(s) -
Rajan Shukla,
Gudlavalleti Venkata Satyanarayana Murthy,
Clare Gilbert,
Bala Vidyadhar,
Sridivya Mukpalkar
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
indian journal of ophthalmology/indian journal of ophthalmology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1998-3689
pISSN - 0301-4738
DOI - 10.4103/ijo.ijo_1827_19
Subject(s) - medicine , retinopathy of prematurity , blinding , gestational age , birth weight , context (archaeology) , neonatal intensive care unit , low birth weight , intensive care , pediatrics , quality management , intensive care medicine , pregnancy , randomized controlled trial , surgery , operations management , paleontology , management system , genetics , economics , biology
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a potentially blinding disease of the eye that can affect infants born four or more weeks preterm and have received intensive neonatal care. ROP is a dynamic, time-bound disease that is not present at birth. Preventing visual loss from ROP in India requires scaling up services for screening and treatment for ROP to match the exponential growth in neonatal intensive care in India and other low- and middle-income countries. Operational guidelines for prevention of visual loss from ROP will facilitate rapid scale up of services, by identifying key players and their roles and responsibility in the Indian context. The guidelines recommend broad eligibility criteria for screening (gestational age ≤34 weeks, birth weight ≤2000 gms) as the special newborn care unit (SNCU) have varying quality of neonatal care. Treatment is based on the early treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ET-ROP) study treatment criteria. The screening criteria could be revisited when more contextual evidence on the risk of ROP is available in India.