Publications by authors named "Lucy Namakula"
Article Synopsis
- This case series investigates whether preterm infants with a gestational age of 32 weeks or more and a birth weight over 1500 grams should be screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) earlier than current guidelines.
- At St. Francis Hospital in Uganda, 3 infants required treatment for severe ROP before 30 days of life after receiving unblended oxygen for several days.
- The findings suggest that infants in this category may be at a higher risk of developing severe ROP sooner than previously recommended by existing guidelines.
Background: To address the threat of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Stop Infant Blindness in Africa (SIBA) project introduced a comprehensive program, including subspecialty training and oxygen management equipment.
Methods: A before-and-after retrospective cohort study compared preterm infants < 1750 g or < 34 weeks' gestation before (2022) and after (2023) program implementation. Outcomes included: the proportion with severe ROP, the proportion with Zone III vascularization on first examination, and factors associated with severe ROP.
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness. Not only do the epidemiologic determinants and distributions of patients with ROP vary worldwide, but clinical differences have also been described. The Third Edition of the International Classification of ROP (ICROP3) acknowledges that aggressive ROP (AROP) can occur in larger preterm infants and involve areas of the more anterior retina, particularly in low-resource settings with unmonitored oxygen supplementation.
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