Study of the ophthalmic system of babies delivered to transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study was the analysis of ophthalmologic disorders in children born to mothers after liver transplantation (LTx) or renal transplantation (RTx) with the assessment of certain neonatal parameters.

METHODS

In the period between 01 January 2010 and 30 June 2012, ophthalmologic examinations were performed in 37 children born to mothers after LTx and 35 children after RTx, as well as 66 children from a control group, born at the 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of Warsaw, from 01 January 2001 to 30 June 2012. Certain parameters of the neonatal period of the child and the mother were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS

Good first-minute states of neonates were observed in 89.2% LTx and 97.1% RTx but in the fifth minute in more than 97% of neonates in both groups. In the LTx and RTx groups, the percentage of preterm deliveries was 48.8% (68.8% in the RTx and 43.2% in the LTx; P=0.0306). There were differences in the immunosuppressant drug therapy in monotherapy as well as two to three drug combinations between the two groups. Children from the LTx, RTx, and control groups had no ophthalmologic disorders in more than 80%. In the LTx and RTx groups, there were convergence insufficiency (6 of 72), strabismus (2 of 72), and hyperopia (2 of 72). The differences in disorders between LTx and RTx groups, as well as LTx+RTx and control groups, were not statistically significant (P=1.00 vs. 0.6206). Retinopathy of prematurity was diagnosed in only two neonates in the RTx group.

CONCLUSIONS

Immunosuppressive treatment during pregnancy, regardless of kind, did not affect the ocular organ's development.