Review Aggressive Posterior Retinopathy of Prematurity in Queen Sirikit National
Institute of Child Health : Bangkok, Thailand

1. Usa Thitiratsanont, MD¹
2. Benjawan Wutthiworavong, MD¹
3. Irine Supangkasen, MD¹
4. Bungonrat Keyurapan, MD¹
5. Chairat Saowaparit, MD²

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child health
²Department of Ophthalmology, Rajavithi Hospital

Purpose: To identify the prevalence of aggressive posterior retinopathy of prematurity (APROP) in ROP clinic of Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health, Bangkok, Thailand.

Methods: Review medical records of infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) follow up in ROP clinic between October 2006 – July 2010. All infants underwent dilated fundus examination by indirect ophthalmoscope after the fourth week of life and follow up until the retinal vascularization was complete. Classification of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) was done according to the International Classification for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ICROP). Detailed baseline characteristic, demographic data, co-morbidities, treatments and outcomes were collected.

Results: In this study, 813 infants with ROP during October 2006 – July 2010 was included. 80 infants classified to APROP (9.8%). 18 cases (22.5%) presented in preterm infants with BW ≥ 1,500 grams. 16 cases failed with laser photocoagulation. Intravitreal Bevacizumab (Avastin) injection was done in 12 cases. The incidence of AP-ROP had increased since 2006.

Conclusions: The incidence of APROP was increase in this study. There were high unfavorable outcomes despite adequate laser photocoagulation . The early recognition and early treatment of AP-ROP may improve visual prognosis even the disease severity is much worse than the classic ROP.