title: Retinopathy of Prematurity: AIIMS, New Delhi Experience.
abstract: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of potentially avoidable childhood blindness worldwide. With improvement in neonatal care, more preterm infants are surviving with a resultant increase in the number of ROP cases. In low-middle income countries, the disease epidemiology is characterized by the occurrence of ROP at higher birthweight in premature babies with greater severity at presentation. In this article, we describe the ROP screening and management program at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi that has evolved over last three decades. The AIIMS model demonstrates that with high-quality perinatal - neonatal care and a stable ROP program, severe ROP is a preventable disease in bigger preterm neonates (28 weeks or higher gestation) and largely remains a disease of extremely low gestational age babies- a phenomenon similar to that noted in high-income countries.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, and *Department of Ophthalmology, Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Correspondence to: Dr Ramesh Agarwal, Additional Professor, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, (Newborn Health Knowledge Center (NHKC), ICMR Center for Advanced Research in Newborn Health and WHO Collaborating Centre for Newborn Training and Research, New Private Ward-1st Floor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110 029, India. ra.aiims@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sindhu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivanandan
authors.forename: Parijat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chandra
authors.forename: Ashok K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Deorari
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Agarwal
mesh_terms: D000047:Academies and Institutes; D001766:Blindness; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D053685:Laser Therapy; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012178:Retinopathy of Prematurity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy