Role of antenatal betamethasone in premature babies and its effect on retinopathy of prematurity

Dr. Abhishek Ghelani; Dr. Khushnood M. Sheikh; Dr Manisha Shashtri

Volume : VIII, Issue : VIII, August - 2019

Role of antenatal betamethasone in premature babies and its effect on retinopathy of prematurity

Dr. Abhishek Ghelani, Dr. Khushnood M. Sheikh, Dr Manisha Shashtri

Abstract :

Background: advances in medical science has increase the overall survival rate of human being. this applies to neonates who born before their complete development in womb and their increased survival rate lead to increase occurrence rate of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). In the struggle of their survival many measures done and one of which is injection of betamethasone to pregnant mother at the time of their premature delivery to develop their lungs and to reduce mortality. Materials and Methods: this is a prospective observational study carried out for 12 months duration. Mother who has been given antenatal betamethasone were included after their consent. Total 54 infants ≤ 32 weeks gestation at birth and babies born at 32 to 34 weeks who were exposed to oxygen support in NICU and babies having birth weight <1750gms were screened at one month of post–natal age. Infants pupils were dilated with short acting standard drops and indirect ophthalmoscopic examination was done, the grading of eyes was being done using International classification of ROP (ICROP). Zone I and zone II with any stage is considered as severe ROP including plus disease. Data were analysed by t–test for quantitative data and χ2 test for qualitative data. Results: Out of 54 babies examined over one year, 23 were diagnosed with ROP (any stage) incidence was 42.59%.out of 23 babies stage I ROP was in 33.33%, stage II ROP in 3.70% and stage III in 5.55% and severe ROP that required treatment was 5.55%. Low birth weight was important risk factor .Low gestational age was also a significant risk factor of ROP (p 0.04). Gender was not found as a risk factor for ROP. All babies were prevented from sight threatening complication by timely screening and treatment. Antenatal betamethasone did not show any significant effect on ROP.