Orthoptic Monitoring of Pre-term babies.
This is a topic I’ve been interested in clinically due to the fact that our regional area has for the last 10 years ono relied on Orthoptic examination at the 12 months corrected birth age.
… after the initial neonate SMO assessment for acute ROP, monitoring of any neonatal vascularisation of the retina while baby is in NICU, and treatment if required of laser and/or Avastin. The children are discharged from NICU for 12-month review by Paeds. and ourselves.
This article piqued my interest as on reading it I’m finding it corroborated the trends I’d seen clinically over the years.
It is an excellent large-scale study based on the Gutenberg Prematurity Eye Study, both retrospective and prospective review of adults whom had initially been born prematurely both the extreme prem (<28weeks, 29-32 and no ROP, and 33-36 no ROP and <32 ROP without treatment and <32 with treatment,) plus a control of full-term infants >37 weeks. It also builds on knowledge base from previous studies. Although it was restricted to a single centre and mainly Caucasian participants the fact that there were 450 infants and 892 eyes in total the trends I feel are valid and back up my anecdotal clinical finding from >30years Orthoptics”!
Conclusion I will be interested to see if other Orthoptic areas also agree with the studies finding that:-
- The increasing severity of low birthweight & gestational age increases the likelihood of strabismus and nystagmus
- Esotropia most frequent.
- Strabismus most commonly seen before aged 10
- Higher incidence of perinatal adverse events leads to increased likelihood of nystagmus developing.
One response to “Orthoptic Monitoring of Pre-term babies”
Great article Sally. They have been very intrentional about defining gestational age and stats associated with each group. Agree with your comments. Then add some of causes of prematurity and stats higher again!