Letter to the Editor December 22, 2020 December 22, 2020

Structural eye sequelae of retinopathy of prematurity in children in Manaus, Amazonas

DOI: 10.5935/0034-7280.20200093

We would like to complete some topics as comment on the article’s Structural eye sequelae of retinopathy of prematurity in children in Manaus City, Amazonas State/Brazil⁽⁾, which was published in your esteemed journal.

The aforementioned article shows that retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an important cause of preventable blindness in Amazonas State/Brazil, which affects 31.6% of children at risk of it. This number shows the need for screening and treatment programs applied to this population in order to avoid blindness in public healthcare system users.⁽⁾ The last retinopathy of prematurity epidemic caused irreversible blindness in more than 50,000 preterm infants.⁽⁾ Ophthalmologists’ training in such an area is often inadequate and limits the number of future qualified professionals. Moreover, parameters used in retinopathy of prematurity diagnosis, such as zone, stage, and presence of additional diseases differ even among experts.⁽⁾ Approximately 25% of exams conducted in a multicenter study that adopts telemedicine to diagnose this pathology did not meet the three clinically significant ROP criteria.⁽⁾

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