Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the most common avoidable causes of blindness in children.¹ Of the 15 million babies born preterm (i.e., before 37 completed weeks of gestation) every year,² approximately 15 to 20% are affected with ROP.³ This frequency increases to 30% in babies with a birth weight of 750 to 999 g.³ “Annually, an estimated 32,300 infants worldwide are diagnosed with irreversible visual impairment from ROP, of whom an estimated 20,000 become blind or severely visually impaired,⁴” said Prof. Andreas Stahl.

The key risk factors for the development of ROP are low gestational age, low birth weight, and postnatal oxygen supply. Other factors contributing to the risk of ROP are hypoxemia, low postnatal weight gain, postnatal hyperglycemia, neonatal infections, and hypercarbia.^5-7 These risk factors are often connected with undernutrition and other comorbidities such as neurological dysfunction, poor brain growth, necrotising enterocolitis, intraventricular haemorrhage, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.⁵