Retinopathy of Prematurity: Clinical Diagnosis and Classification

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an important and preventable cause of childhood blindness. For this reason, in the VISION 2020 program initiated by the World Health Organization to eliminate avoidable blindness, the control of the disease was highlighted. As the survival rate of very low birth weight infants increases in developing countries, including our country, due to improvements in neonatal care, the frequency of the disease has increased. The basic strategy for the prevention of blindness from ROP is to identify the patients requiring treatment by examining them according to a certain protocol. In this process, also called “Screening program”, it is important to identify as many babies needing treatment as possible, while minimizing the number of examinations. In this respect, the risk group should be well- defined, and diagnosis, follow-up and treatment process should be done in line with a standard protocol. This review aims to give information about the clinical diagnosis and classification of ROP.