Comparison of the detection rates for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) of the 2013 Philippine Academy of Ophthalmology (PAO) Revised Philippine Guidelines and the 2005 PAO-Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) Guidelines for ROP screening in the Philippine General Hospital: a 5-year review

OBJECTIVES: Compare the detection rates of the 2013 Philippine Academy of Ophthalmology (PAO) guidelines for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening and the 2005 PAO-Philippine Pediatric Society guidelines in identifying infants who develop ROP in the 5-year study period in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Secondary objectives include determination of ROP prevalence; correlation of gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW) and other risk factors to ROP; and identification of the most common intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Retrospective cross-sectional study of ROP records between 1 December 2013 and 30 November 2018 from the Medical Retina Service of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences of the institution was studied. Variables with p value <0.05 were considered significant. STATA V.14 was used for all analysis. RESULTS: Only 851 of 898 infants screened for ROP were included in the study. Of these 698 would have been screened based on 2005 guidelines. All 118 infants with ROP were identified by both guidelines. Detection rate was higher using the 2005 than the 2013 guidelines (16.9% vs 13.3%, p value=0.0496). ROP prevalence was 9.7%. Among those with ROP, 70% have at least one identified risk factor, topped by sepsis, pneumonia, hyaline membrane disease, blood transfusion and oxygen supplementation. Only 8% required intervention consisting of laser, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injection, surgery or in combination. CONCLUSION: In PGH, no infants with ROP were missed using the 2005 recommendations. There was no added benefit of increasing threshold for BW and GA as recommended by the 2013 PAO guidelines. Screening guidelines should, however, be tailored to institutional needs, requirements and experience.