Retinopathy of prematurity

DEFINITION/OVERVIEW Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an important cause of potentially preventable blindness in children. It is a vasoproliferative disorder of the retina that primarily affects severely premature infants. Blindness is considered a top priority by the World Health Organization (WHO) for several key reasons. The number of ‘blind years’ is extraordinarily high for a person blinded in infancy, and is associated with staggering emotional, social, and economic costs to the affected child, the child’s family, and society at large. Many causes of blindness in children, including ROP, are either preventable or treatable.1 Many advancements have taken place in the management of ROP which have led to decreasing rates of blindness in premature children in developed countries. However, as the ability to save premature infants improves in developing countries, many parts of the world are at risk of seeing history repeat itself and the incidence of blindness from this disease increasing.