Guidelines
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World J Clin Pediatr. May 9, 2022; 11(3): 215-220
Published online May 9, 2022. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v11.i3.215
Preferred practice guidelines for retinopathy of prematurity screening during the COVID-19 pandemic
Anand Vinekar, Rajvardhan Azad, Mangat Ram Dogra, Subhadra Jalali, Pramod Bhende, Parijat Chandra, Narendran Venkatapathy, Sucheta Kulkarni
Anand Vinekar, Pediatric Retina, Narayana Nethralaya Eye Institute, Bangalore 560010, India
Rajvardhan Azad, Department of Ophthalmology, Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, IGIMS, Patna 800014, India
Mangat Ram Dogra, Department of Ophthalmology, Grewal Eye Institute, Chandigarh 160009, India
Subhadra Jalali, Department of Retina, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad 500034, India
Pramod Bhende, Department of Retina, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai 600006, India
Parijat Chandra, Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110023, India
Narendran Venkatapathy, Department of Retina, Aravind Eye Hospital, Coimbatore 641014, India
Sucheta Kulkarni, Department of Ophthalmology, H.V.Desai Eye Hospital, Pune 411028, India
Author contributions: All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict-of-interest for any author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Anand Vinekar, FRCS, MD, PhD, Attending Doctor, Director, Professor, Pediatric Retina, Narayana Nethralaya Eye Institute, 121/C, 1st R Block, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560010, India. anandvinekar@yahoo.com
Received: March 1, 2021
Peer-review started: March 1, 2021
First decision: July 30, 2021
Revised: August 17, 2021
Accepted: March 16, 2022
Article in press: March 16, 2022
Published online: May 9, 2022
Processing time: 432 Days and 2.7 Hours
Abstract

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the leading cause of preventable infant blindness in the world and predominantly affects babies who are born low birth weight and premature. India has the largest number of surviving preterm births born annually. ROP blindness can be largely prevented if there is a robust screening program which detects treatment requiring disease in time. ROP treatment must be provided within 48 h of reaching this threshold of treatment making it a relative emergency. During the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in 2020 ROP screening was disrupted throughout the world due to lockdowns and restriction of movement of these infants, their families, specialists and healthcare workers. The Indian ROP Society issued guidelines for ROP screening and treatment in March 2020, which was aimed at preserving the chain-of-care despite the potential limitations and hazards during the (ongoing) pandemic. This preferred practice guideline is summarized in this manuscript.

Keywords: Retinopathy of prematurity; Screening; Preferred practice; COVID-19; Pandemic; Indian retinopathy of prematurity society

Core Tip: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a relative emergency in ophthalmology because if it’s screening and treatment is delayed it can result in permanent vision impairment or even blindness in at risk infants. During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the Indian ROP society formulated these preferred practice guidelines with the aim of reducing this risk.