The safety and feasibility of the screening for retinopathy of prematurity assisted by telemedicine network during COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China

Autor: Zheng Guo, Nan Ma, Yixuan Wu, Hua Yuan, Wanjun Luo, Lingkong Zeng, Hong Jie, Shilian Li
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMC Ophthalmology, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1471-2415
DOI: 10.1186/s12886-021-02018-x
Popis: Abstract Background During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, due to the traffic blockade and the shortage of medical resources, more and more premature infants could not receive timely and effective ROP screening, which delayed treatment and even caused children blindness. Therefore, how to carry out ROP screening safely and effectively during the epidemic was very important and urgent. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of ROP screening assisted by telemedicine network during COVID-19 outbreak. Methods This retrospective study was conducted at Wuhan Children’s hospital in Wuhan, China, from January to October, 2020. The measures which were performed to make the ROP screening more safe and effective were summarized and the comparison between ROP screening assisted by telemedicine network in 2020 and usual screening in 2019 were analyzed. Results A total of 267 outpatient infants completed ROP screening. The median gestational age was 32 weeks (30w to 34w) and the median birth weight was 1780 g (1460 g to 2100 g). Meanwhile, 149 (55.8%) out of 267 infants were males. During January to May in 2020, 86 screening appointments were received, among which 67 (77.9%) were from telemedicine platform online. The completing percentage of total online ROP appointments was higher than that of total face-to-face appointments (58.1% VS 22. 1%, P = 0.018). As for the number of infants screened between 2020 and 2019 from Februaryto October, 54 infants completed ROP screening in 2020, which was higher than that (51participants) in 2019 on September. Furthermore, compared with the usual screening in 2019, ROP screening assisted by telemedicine network in 2020 had smaller gestational age (32w VS 33w, p
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals