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Assisted conception results in more treatment-necessary cases of ROP
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HONG KONG — Infants born from assisted conception, such as in vitro fertilization, are at a higher risk of needing treatment for retinopathy of prematurity than those born of natural conception, a presenter said here.
 Grace Sun |
"Assisted reproductive technology is not without its risks. About 50% of those babies born are born through multiple births," Grace Sun, MD, said at the World Ophthalmology Congress. "Multiple births are associated with greater health risk for both mothers as well as infants. There's an increased risk of [caesarean] sections, of infant death and disability and, of course, of prematurity and low birth weight... The singletons as well are born early and very light."
"Of course when we hear prematurity and low birth weight, we always think of ROP," Dr. Sun said. "Our question was: 'Is assisted conception associated with treatment-requiring ROP?'"
The retrospective study looked at 358 infants born and screened for ROP between June 2002 and August 2007. Of those infants, 135 were conceived via assisted conception.
The study showed a statistically significant relationship between assisted conception and ROP cases requiring treatment, Dr. Sun said.
Of infants with very low birth weight of less than 750 g, 11.54% of natural conceptions required ROP treatment while 45.45% of assisted conceptions required treatment. Of infants with low birth weights between 750 g and 1,499 g, 2% of natural conceptions required ROP treatment while 5.62% of assisted conceptions required treatment.
"Assisted conception placed infants at a greater risk for ROP requiring treatment and the risk was higher in the infants who were born of the lightest weight," Dr. Sun said. "Very interestingly, the mean gestational age at which treatment was required was
higher for assisted conception patients rather than in natural conception patients."
"In the future, we hope to try and understand what it is about assisted conception that is associated with an increased risk of reaching ROP that needs treatment," she said.