Present situation of retinopathy in premature infants in Guangdong Province

Objective To investigate the present situation of retinopathy of the prematurity(ROP) in Guangdong Province. Methods A total of 152 hospitals engaged in neonatal medical service were selected from 13 cities in Guangdong Province by stratified random sampling method.The questionnaires of present situation and influential factors for ROP in Guangdong Province were distributed to the hospital officers to survey the special equipment in the Neonato-logy Department, ROP specialists and their training collected, the collected related equipment and the present situation of the disease, et al.Eventually, 122 questionnaires was collected, and the return rate was 80.26%.One hundred and twenty-two hospitals entered into the study, including 50 tertiary hospitals, 72 secondary and primary hospitals.Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 19.0. Results Tertiary hospitals were better than secondary and primary hospitals in terms of conducting the oxygen monitoring (χ2=18.639, P<0.01), ROP screening (χ2=40.054, P<0.01)and ROP treatment(χ2=8.262, P<0.05). The restriction factors in the present situation of ROP were lack of specialists, technology and equipment, especially the first two factors.The difference in lack of specialists and technology between tertiary hospitals and the lower-level hospitals was significant(χ2=4.520, P<0.05). There were 63 hospitals able to conduct ROP screening, and 16 hospitals without equipment could carry out ROP screening through referral or inviting the experts from other hospitals.Fifty-nine hospitals which couldn't carry out ROP screening had to refer patients to other hsopitals or invite the experts from other hospitals for consultation of high risk patients. Conclusions The present situation of ROP in the tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province is generally satisfactory, while that in the secondary and primary hospitals stays behind.The constraints for present situation of ROP examination and treatment were lack of specialists, technology and equipment.The hospitals that can't implement ROP screening should establish regional co-operation by referral and resource sharing to improve the present situation of ROP in Guangdong Province. Key words: Retinopathy; Present situation; Infant, prematruity