Open AccessPreferred practice guidelines for retinopathy of prematurity screening during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Anand Vinekar,
Rajvardhan Azad,
Mangat R Dogra,
Subhadra Jalali,
Pramod Bhende,
Parijat Chandra,
Narendran Venkatapathy,
Sucheta Kulkarni
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
world journal of clinical pediatrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2219-2808
DOI - 10.5409/wjcp.v11.i3.215
Subject(s) - retinopathy of prematurity , medicine , pandemic , childhood blindness , guideline , blindness , pediatrics , covid-19 , low birth weight , disease , gestational age , intensive care medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pregnancy , optometry , genetics , pathology , biology
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the leading cause of preventable infant blindness in the world and predominantly affects babies who are born low birth weight and premature. India has the largest number of surviving preterm births born annually. ROP blindness can be largely prevented if there is a robust screening program which detects treatment requiring disease in time. ROP treatment must be provided within 48 h of reaching this threshold of treatment making it a relative emergency. During the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in 2020 ROP screening was disrupted throughout the world due to lockdowns and restriction of movement of these infants, their families, specialists and healthcare workers. The Indian ROP Society issued guidelines for ROP screening and treatment in March 2020, which was aimed at preserving the chain-of-care despite the potential limitations and hazards during the (ongoing) pandemic. This preferred practice guideline is summarized in this manuscript.