Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Feb 8, 2016; 5(1): 35-46
Published online Feb 8, 2016. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v5.i1.35
Retinopathy of prematurity: Past, present and future
Parag K Shah, Vishma Prabhu, Smita S Karandikar, Ratnesh Ranjan, Venkatapathy Narendran, Narendran Kalpana
Parag K Shah, Vishma Prabhu, Smita S Karandikar, Ratnesh Ranjan, Venkatapathy Narendran, Narendran Kalpana, Pediatric Retina and Ocular Oncology Department, Aravind Eye Hospital and Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology, Coimbatore 641014, Tamilnadu, India
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Parag K Shah, MBBS, DNB, Pediatric Retina and Ocular Oncology Department, Aravind Eye Hospital and Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology, Avinashi Road, Coimbatore 641014, Tamilnadu, India. drshahpk2002@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-422-4360400 Fax: +91-422-2593030
Received: August 13, 2015
Peer-review started: August 14, 2015
First decision: September 28, 2015
Revised: November 11, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: February 8, 2016
Processing time: 168 Days and 2.4 Hours
Abstract

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a vasoproliferative disorder of the retina occurring principally in new born preterm infants. It is an avoidable cause of childhood blindness. With the increase in the survival of preterm babies, ROP has become the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness throughout the world. A simple screening test done within a few weeks after birth by an ophthalmologist can avoid this preventable blindness. Although screening guidelines and protocols are strictly followed in the developed nations, it lacks in developing economies like India and China, which have the highest number of preterm deliveries in the world. The burden of this blindness in these countries is set to increase tremendously in the future, if corrective steps are not taken immediately. ROP first emerged in 1940s and 1950s, when it was called retrolental fibroplasia. Several epidemics of this disease were and are still occurring in different regions of the world and since then a lot of research has been done on this disease. However, till date very few comprehensive review articles covering all the aspects of ROP are published. This review highlights the past, present and future strategies in managing this disease. It would help the pediatricians to update their current knowledge on ROP.

Keywords: Retinopathy of prematurity; Retrolental fibroplasia; Screening guidelines; Oxygen; Classification; Epidemics; Anti vascular endothelial growth factor; Vitrectomy; Laser; Future trends

Core tip: Although literature is full of various articles on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), there are very few comprehensive review articles on this disease. This article covers ROP from 1940s and 1950s when seen as retrolental fibroplasia, to the current screening and treatment guidelines to the future trends. Our objective is to consolidate the literature on this disease, which will benefit the pediatricians.