Purpose To collect data towards the establishment of a guideline to predict the population under risk for the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Turkey.

Methods Medical reports of 2950 preterm infants who underwent screening examinations for ROP between 1996 and 2010 at Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology were reviewed. The study population was classified as inpatient infants and referred infants. A risk factor analysis was performed limited to the 788 inpatient infants. The demographical variables regarding birth weight (BW), gestational age (GA) and postnatal age at the time of treatment were compared independently between 403 referred and 64 inpatient infants who were treated for severe ROP.

Results The mean GA of the infants with severe ROP was 31.2±2.7 weeks, mean BW was 1543.4±508.3 g. The risk factor analysis of inpatient infants revealed BW<1500 g, GA<32 weeks; intraventricular haemorrhage, respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, apnoea and phototherapy were associated with a higher incidence of ROP. In addition, sepsis, male gender, multiple gestations, BW<1500 g were associated with a higher incidence of progression to severe ROP, whereas maternal pre-eclampsia was associated with a lower incidence. On the other hand, comparison of demographic features revealed that the referred infants with ROP were born at a significantly higher BW and needed significantly earlier treatment than inpatient infants with ROP.

Conclusions The high BW and GA of infants with severe ROP indicate wider screening criteria should be used in our country. BW might be a more important criterion than GA for ROP screening.