Background: Previously ventilated preterms are at a high risk of abnormal visual and neurological development when compared to full term babies and non-ventilated preterms. Preterm birth is associated with retinopathy of prematurity and can also affect the development of brain structures associated with post-retinal processing of visual information. These impairments can continue into adolescence and adulthood and may contribute to the difficulties in learning, attention, behavior and cognition that some children born preterm experience. Electrophysiologic testing of the visual system requires primarily the ERG &VEP which useful in the diagnosis of visual loss in nonverbal patients especially in children.
Aim of the work: we aim to assess the VEP and ERG in previously ventilated preterm infants.
Subject and Method: this study is prospective case control study. The study was conducted on 100 preterm babies, male and female, less than 37week gestational age. The average age from 1 to 6 months with normal fundus examination. Half of them (50 babies) previously ventilated preterms as case group and 50 babies as control. this work was done for Preterms at Bostan Diagnostic Eye Center "Cairo-Egypt" from October 2021 to March 2022.VEP and ERG was done for each eye separately according to the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) standards protocols.
Results: There was a statistically significant association between groups and flash VEP, p value (<0.001). VEP absent in 90% of case group (preterms previously ventilated). A strong positive correlation between oculus dextrus (OD=RT Eye) flash ERG photopic b wave amplitude in microvolt and duration on mechanical ventilation by day among ventilated patients. A strong positive correlation between oculus sinister (OS=LT Eye) flash ERG photopic a wave latency in ms and age by months among ventilated patients. A moderate negative correlation between OD eye flash ERG photopic b wave amplitude in microvolt and gestational age by weeks among ventilated patients. A moderate positive correlation between OS eye flash erg scotopic 3.0 b wave amplitude in microvolt and duration on mechanical ventilation by day among ventilated patients. A weak positive correlation between OS eye flash ERG photopic b wave amplitude in microvolt and duration on mechanical ventilation by day among ventilated patients.
Conclusion: the result obtained by our study provide that VEP test in previously ventilated preterms was absent in 90% of cases. A strong positive correlation between OD eye flash ERG photopic b wave amplitude in microvolt and duration on mechanical ventilation by day among ventilated patients p-value (0.0019) and correlation coefficient (0.429). A strong positive correlation between OS eye flash ERG photopic a wave latency in ms and age by months among ventilated patients p-value (0.0018) and correlation coefficient (0.43).