LVPEI crossed a major milestone in preventing avoidable blindness in newborn babies by managing 1,00,000 preterm babies for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) across its network centres in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Of these, 64,000 babies have been managed through preventive, curative and rehabilitative care at LVPEI’s Hyderabad campus, 17,000 at the Bhubaneswar campus, 9000 at the Vijayawada campus, 8000 at the Visakhapatnam campus and 9500 through the LVPEI rural secondary centres. Among those identified with ROP, 6685 babies (20,362 eyes) were safely operated, 4559 babies (10,273 eyes) received lasers, and 1510 babies (2901 eyes) received injections to manage difficult stages of ROP. ROP is a blinding eye disease and an emerging epidemic of the 21st century. Babies born early (premature) or with low birth weight (less than 2 kg at birth) are at the risk of developing ROP.
To mark this milestone achievement, the LVPEI team launched the unique, one-of-its-kind atlas ‘LVPEI Atlas of Retinopathy of Prematurity and other Neonatal Retinal Diseases’ - a useful guide for clinicians, researchers, healthcare personnels and policy makers.
