Insights into retinopathy of prematurity incidence: Contrasting small vs. appropriate size for gestational age premature infants at a tertiary eye care institute in central India

To compare the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in small for gestational age (SGA) premature infants with those of appropriate size for gestational age (AGA) attending ROP screening clinic in a tertiary eye care institute of Central India 2018-2019. All premature infants attending the screening program with gestational age of <37 weeks and weight less than 90th centile as per gestational age were included in the study. The presence of any stage of ROP and severity of ROP was compared between SGA and AGA infants using chi-square test and SPSS software. Total 603 premature infants up to 36 weeks underwent eye screening; 250 (41.4%) were SGA infants. SGA infants born 29-32 weeks were at higher risk for development of ROP (p<0.01) than their AGA peers. However no group was found to have higher severity of ROP than the other. SGA infants who underwent eye screening in central India from January 2018 to June 2019 were at a significant high risk of developing ROP then AGA infants.