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Journal of Clinical Medicine logoLink to Journal of Clinical Medicine
. 2022 May 2;11(9):2562. doi: 10.3390/jcm11092562

The Association between Gestational Age and Risk for Long Term Ophthalmic Morbidities among Offspring Delivered in Different Preterm Subgroups

Erez Tsumi 1,*,, Itai Hazan 2,, Tamir Regev 1, Samuel Leeman 1, Chiya Barrett 1, Noa Fried Regev 3, Eyal Sheiner 4,*
Editors: Sylvie Girard, Ferdinando Antonio Gulino
PMCID: PMC9102827  PMID: 35566688

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether there is a linear association between the degree of prematurity and the risk for long-term ophthalmic morbidity among preterm infants. Study design: A population-based, retrospective cohort study, which included all singleton deliveries occurring between 1991 and 2014 at a single tertiary medical center. All infants were divided into four groups according to gestational age categories: extremely preterm births, very preterm births, moderate to late preterm births and term deliveries (reference group). Hospitalizations of offspring up to 18 years of age involving ophthalmic morbidity were evaluated. Survival curves compared cumulative hospitalizations and regression models controlled for confounding variables. Results: During the study period, 243,363 deliveries met the inclusion criteria. Ophthalmic-related hospitalization rates were lower among children born at term (0.9%) as compared with extremely preterm (3.6%), very preterm (2%), and moderate to late preterm (1.4%) born offspring (p < 0.01; using the chi-square test for trends). The survival curve demonstrated significantly different hospitalization rates between the gestational ages (p < 0.001). The regression demonstrated an independent risk for ophthalmic morbidity among extremely preterm born offspring (adjusted hazard ratio 3.8, confidence interval 1.6–9.2, p < 0.01), as well as very preterm and moderate to late preterm (adjusted hazard ratio 2.2 and 1.5, respectively) as compared with term deliveries. Conclusions: The risk for long-term ophthalmic-related hospitalization of preterm offspring gradually decreases as the gestational age increases.

Keywords: ophthalmic morbidities, retinopathy of prematurity, gestational age, preterm delivery

1. Introduction

The consequences of prematurity are well established in literature, causing long-term and potentially severe effects on pediatric and infantile morbidity and mortality [1,2]. With incomplete maturation, preterm infants are at a greater risk for developing a wide spectrum of medical complications, including hypothermia, jaundice, respiratory disorders [3], immunologic problems [4], neurodevelopmental problems [5,6,7], increased susceptibility to infections, hypoglycemia and feeding problems. In accordance with preterm newborns’ shorter intrauterine periods, ocular development in preterm infants is also subject to a number of abnormal influences, given the reduced time for proper growth and support in a unique environment [8]. Previous literature demonstrated that children who were born very preterm (28–32 weeks) are at a significantly higher risk for abnormal visual and neurological development, when compared to children born at full term [9]. These abnormalities include retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), strabismus, color vision deficits, visual field defects, decreased visual acuity and refractive error [10].

The World Health Organization (WHO) subcategorizes preterm births based on gestational age: extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks delivery), very preterm (28 to 32 weeks delivery), moderate to late preterm (32 to 37 weeks delivery) [11].

A recent study showed that long-term ophthalmic morbidities of offspring is significantly associated with early term delivery [12]. Early preterm-born offspring were found to have an independent risk for long-term ophthalmic morbidity (adjusted hazard ratio 2.51, confidence interval 1.91–3.29) as compared with full term offspring. In our study, we sought to investigate one step further to understand the relative risk for long-term ophthalmic morbidity between the different subcategories of preterm deliveries.

2. Materials and Methods

A retrospective cohort study of all singleton pregnancies in women who gave birth between the years 1991 and 2014 was conducted. Data was taken from the Soroka Univer-sity Medical Center (SUMC), the major tertiary hospital in the Negev region of Israel and the largest birth center in the country. The Negev region has continued to see increasing immigration since the 1990s. Therefore, the present study was based on non-selective population data. The study protocol was a received informed consent exemption by the SUMC institutional review board and was exempt from informed consent. The study population included two different ethnic groups: Jewish and Bedouins, who differ in their economic status, levels of education, and traditional beliefs [13]. However, prenatal care services are available to all Israeli citizens free of charge (covered by universal national health Insurance) [13]. Nevertheless, prenatal care services utilization is lower in Bedouin women as compared to Jewish women for a variety of social, cultural, and geographical access issues [14,15].

The primary exposure was defined as pre-term delivery (before 37 weeks). The control groups consisted of newborns born at later gestations. Gestational age was based on the best obstetric estimate determined by providers and used for clinical decision making. The standard criteria used involved consideration of the clinical history and earliest ultrasound scan. If the last menstrual period (LMP) was certain and consistent with the ultrasound, dating was based on the LMP. If the ultrasound was not consistent with the LMP, or the LMP was unknown, ultrasound data were used to determine gestational age.

Excluded from the study were fetuses with congenital malformations or chromosomal abnormalities, as well as perinatal mortality cases (intrauterine fetal death, intra-partum death, and post-partum death) and nonsingleton births. All offspring were divided into four groups according to their gestational age at delivery: extremely preterm birth: 24–28 gestational weeks, very preterm birth: 28–32 gestational weeks, moderate to late preterm birth: 32–37 gestational weeks and term deliveries: above 37 weeks.

The long-term outcomes assessed included all hospitalizations of offspring at SUMC until the age of 18 years that involved ophthalmic morbidity. The term “ophthalmic morbidity” included four categories: visual disturbances, retinopathy of prematurity, ocular infection and hospitalization. All diagnoses during hospitalization were predefined according to a set of ICD-9 procedures and diagnostic codes, detailed in Table A1.

Follow-up was terminated once any of the following occurred: after the first hospitalization, due to any of the predefined ophthalmic morbidities, any hospitalization resulting in death of the child, or when the child reached 18 years of age (calculated by date of birth).

Data was collected from two databases that were cross-linked and merged: the computerized hospitalization database of SUMC (“Demog-ICD9”), and the computerized perinatal database of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department. The perinatal database consists of information recorded immediately following an obstetrician delivery. Experienced medical secretaries routinely reviewed the information prior to entering it into the database to ensure maximal completeness and accuracy. Coding was carried out after assessing medical prenatal care records, as well as routine hospital documents.

The SPSS package 23rd ed. (IBM/SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis. Categorical data is shown in counts and rates. Associations between the gestational age categories, background and outcome characteristics were assessed using the chi-square and ANOVA tests. In order to demonstrate the cumulative hospitalization incidences over time among the study groups, a Kaplan–Meier survival curve was used, and the log-rank test was used to assess the difference between the curves.

For the purposes of establishing an independent association between specific gestational age and the future incidence of ophthalmic-related hospitalizations of the offspring, a Cox regression model was constructed. The model was adjusted for confounding and clinically significant variables, including maternal age and diabetes (pre-gestational and gestational). All analyses were two-sided, and a p-value of ≤0.05 was statistically considered.

3. Results

A total of 243,363 deliveries were included in the study; 405 were between 24–28 gestational weeks (0.2%), 1084 deliveries were between 28–32 weeks (0.4%), 14,956 deliveries were between 32–37 weeks (6.1%) and 226,918 occurred at ≥37 gestational weeks (93.2%).

Table 1 summarizes maternal characteristics by delivery week category. Maternal age was similar in all delivery groups, with an overall average of 28.08 ± 6.3. Diabetes was more likely to occur in deliveries between 32–37 weeks (7.5%). Hypertensive disorders were more common in deliveries between 28–32 weeks (17.7%).

Table 1.

Maternal characteristics according to gestational age.

Maternal Characteristic Extremely Preterm: 24–28 Weeks (n = 405) Very Preterm: 28–32 Weeks (n = 1084) Moderate to Late Preterm: 32–37 Weeks (n = 14,956) Term Deliveries: more than 37 weeks (n = 22,6918) p-Value
Ethnicity, n (%) <0.01
Jewish 190 (46.9%) 463 (42.7%) 6883 (46%) 107,673 (47.5%)
Bedouin 215 (53.1%) 621 (57.3%) 8073 (54%) 119,245 (52.5%)
Maternal age, years, mean ± SD 28.44 ± 6.5 28.16 ± 6.3 28.14 ± 6.2 28.16 ± 5.7 <0.01
Diabetes 1, n (%) 5 (1.2%) 57 (5.3%) 1118 (7.5%) 10,973 (4.8%) <0.01
Hypertensive disease 2, n (%) 40 (9.9%) 192 (17.7%) 1839 (12.3%) 10,169 (4.5%) <0.01

1 Including pre gestational and gestational diabetes; 2 Including pre gestational, gestational hypertension and pre- eclampsia.

Table 2 summarizes pregnancy outcomes of all four groups. Mean birth weight was positively associated to gestational age; ranging from 855.1 ± 429.5 for 24–28 weeks of age to 3264 ± 446.6 among the mature group, while small for gestational age (SGA) as well as low birth weight (LBW( were most common in the former group (13.3% and 97.5% respectively). Cesarean deliveries were significantly more common among women in 28–32 weeks of gestation (44.8%, p-value < 0.01).

Table 2.

Pregnancy outcomes for children (age < 18) by delivery week.

Pregnancy Outcome Extremely Preterm: 24–28 Weeks (n = 405) Very Preterm: 28–32 Weeks (n = 1084) Moderate to Late Preterm: 32–37 Weeks (n = 14,676) Term Deliveries: more than 37 Weeks (n = 226,917) p-Value
Birthweight, gr mean ± SD 855.1 ± 429.5 1560.7 ± 623.4 2532.4 ± 506.3 3264.2 ± 446.6 <0.01
Small for gestational age 1, n (%) 54 (13.3%) 54 (5%) 607 (4.1%) 10,547 (4.6%) <0.01
Low birth weight 2, n (%) 395 (97.5%) 992 (91.5%) 7030 (47%) 7805 (3.4%) <0.01
Cesarean delivery, n (%) 139 (34.3%) 486 (44.8%) 4444 (29.7%) 27,908 (12.3%) <0.01

1 Small for gestational age (SGA) < 5th percentile for gestational age; 2 Low birth weight (LBW) < 2500 g.

The long-term ophthalmological morbidities based on hospitalizations is presented in Table 3. Rates of visual disturbances and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) were significantly higher among the 24–28 gestational weeks group (0.7%, p-value < 0.01; 1.4%, p-value < 0.01 respectively), while ocular infection was highest among newborns in the 28–32 weeks of gestation (0.9%, p-value < 0.01). Total ophthalmic hospitalization rates were highest among the 24–28 gestational weeks group (3.6%, p-value < 0.01 using the chi-square test for trends), and gradually decreased with increasing gestational week (2% among 28–32 weeks, 1.4% among 32–37 weeks, and 0.9% among 37+ weeks). A decrease in the number of hospitalizations with gestational age was also documented while stratifying for ethnicity. Offspring born between 24–28 weeks had the highest cumulative incidence of hospitalizations (Figure 1) due to ophthalmological morbidity, followed by offspring born at 28-36 and those born at ≥37 gestational weeks (p < 0.001).

Table 3.

Selected long-term ophthalmological morbidities for children (age < 18) by delivery week.

Ophthalmological
Morbidity
Extremely Preterm: 24–28 Weeks (n = 138) Very Preterm: 28–32 Weeks (n = 891) Moderate to Late Preterm: 32–37 Weeks (n = 14,676) Term Deliveries: more than 37 Weeks (n = 226,482) p-Value
Visual disturbances, n (%) 1 (0.7%) 0 (0%) 36 (0.2%) 245 (0.1%) <0.01
ROP, n (%) 2 (1.4%) 2 (0.2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) <0.01
Ocular Infections, n (%) 1 (0.7%) 8 (0.9%) 123 (0.8%) 1336 (0.6%) 0.02
Total ophthalmic Hospitalization, n (%) Bedouin 2 (1.4%) 12 (1.3%) 123 (0.8%) 1190 (0.5%) <0.01
Jewish 3 (2.2%) 6 (0.7%) 85 (0.6%) 907 (0.4%) <0.01
All 5 (3.6%) 18 (2%) 208 (1.4%) 2097 (0.9%) <0.01

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Kaplan-Meier survival curve demonstrating the cumulative incidence of. ophthalmological-related hospitalizations compared to delivery time in weeks.

In the multivariate Cox regression model for offspring long-term risk of ophthalmic-related hospitalizations (Table 4), earlier deliveries were associated with higher risk for hospitalization, compared to the most mature group (24–28) weeks: HR = 3.8; CI95% 2.6–9.2; 28–32 weeks: HR = 2.2; CI95% 1.4–3.5; 32–37 weeks: HR = 1.5; CI95% 1.3–1.7).

Table 4.

Cox regression analysis of the association between week of birth and ophthalmic-related hospitalization of children (age < 18).

Hazard Ratio 95% CI p-Value
Extremely preterm: 24–28 weeks 3.8 1.6–9.2 <0.01
Very preterm: 28–32 weeks 2.2 1.4–3.5 <0.01
Moderate to late preterm: 32–37 weeks 1.5 1.3–1.7 <0.01
Term deliveries: more than 37 weeks 1 (Reference)
Mother age at birth 0.9 0.98–0.99 0.02
Diabetes 1.0 0.8–1.2 0.6

4. Discussion

This large population-based cohort study demonstrates an increased risk for childhood and adolescence long-term ophthalmic morbidities as the gestational age becomes earlier among the pre-term deliveries. The risk remained significantly elevated among all the preterm groups while controlling for relevant maternal factors.

Numerous studies have identified an association between early gestational age at birth and the risk of poor health outcomes, based on incidence of morbidities, mortality and hospitalization rates [16,17]. A growing body of evidence has also shown ophthalmic morbidity among preterm infants. Kozeis et al. [18] found preterm infants to be associated with impairment of some aspects of visual function.

Although the pathophysiology is still not fully understood, complex multifactorial mechanisms have been suggested as the potential causes for ocular damage from preterm delivery. The suggested mechanisms include deficiencies in both innate and adaptive immunity [19], hypoxic-ischemic induced inflammation and cytokine injury, reperfusion injury, toxin-mediated injury, infection [20,21], and insufficient endogenous hormones (e.g., Cortisol & thyroxin), often exhibited as transient hypothyroxinemia of prematurity (THOP) [22].

Vast epidemiological studies conducted worldwide on ROP showed that despite geographical variability, the incidence of ROP was similar [14,15,16,17,18]. A study conducted by the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network (ANZNN) showed that the incidence of severe ROP was higher (34%) in infants born before 25 weeks gestation when compared to infants born at 25–26 weeks gestation (12.9%) [23]. Similar results have been found in North America, the UK and Indonesia [24,25,26].

Our findings revealed that the highest rate of ROP was observed in infants born at 24–28 weeks gestation (1.4%), with a declining rate for more advanced gestational age and reaching zero cases in those born after 32 weeks’ gestation. These results are consistent with previous studies examining the rate of ROP [27,28,29,30] and are likely to be explained by the fact that ROP is a disease of developing blood vessels, which are still considered underdeveloped at the beginning of the third trimester [31].

Additional long-term ophthalmological morbidities, such as visual disturbances, were examined in our study and showed the same pattern. The higher visual disturbances in preterm babies are a consequence of the higher retinopathy rate and other reasons e.g., osteopenia of prematurity [32]. Other types of vision disturbances include sub-categories, such as strabismus (both exotropia and esotropia), refractive errors, visual field deficits, color vision errors, astigmatism, cortical blindness and more. A recent study comparing strabismus in premature and term children found that the risk for strabismus in premature children was substantially higher than in full-term children (16.2% vs. 3.2%) [33]. Other ophthalmological morbidities related to prematurity, such as ROP, were linked to increased risk for strabismus as well [34].

Many factors contribute to the increased susceptibility of preterm infants to infections. Prematurity is associated with underdeveloped ocular surface defense mechanisms and has also been associated with neonatal conjunctivitis [35]. While previous studies showed an increase in the risk for general ocular infection among preterm newborns compared to term newborns [36], our analysis did not show a conclusive trend. Infants born between 24–28 weeks of gestation showed a lower proportion of ocular infections compared to those born during weeks 28–32 (0.7% compared to 0.9% respectively). This result could be explained by the smaller size of the preterm group and requires further analysis.

The key strength of our study was the use of a large cohort in a single medical center providing broad follow-up of children up to 18 years of age. This allowed for the investigation of substantially larger numbers of infants to be followed-up on than could be achieved by individual NICU follow-up studies, and simplified the monitoring of all infants for the purposes of comparison.

A major limitation of our study is its retrospective nature, as such studies may only suggest an association rather than causation. An additional limitation is the fact that information on other important risk factors, such as lifestyle, nutrition, perinatal treatment and other family factors was not available in the datasets. Two more challenges stemmed from the choice of ophthalmic-related hospitalizations as the present study’s endpoint: (1) Most of the ophthalmic morbidity is probably catered to in an outpatient setting (as discussed earlier). However, all significant ocular morbidity is routed to the SUMC, as it is the only tertiary hospital in the South of Israel (2) Offspring born earlier are more likely to be hospitalized in general, and therefore may be more frequently diagnosed with ophthalmic morbidities.

5. Conclusions

Our study was able to find a significant association between degree of prematurity and long-term ocular morbidities up to 18 years of age. A markedly increasing risk of severe adverse neonatal outcomes was observed as gestational age decreased. Further studies could raise awareness for early interventions, improve children’s health outcomes and decrease the burden on health care systems attributed to these diseases.

Appendix A

Table A1.

Supplement Data—Ophthalmic Diagnoses.

Group Subgroup Code Diagnosis Description
Ophthalmic Infectious inflammatory 370 KERATITIS
3643 UNSPECIFIED IRIDOCYCLITIS
3708 OTHER FORMS OF KERATITIS
3709 UNSPECIFIED KERATITIS
3720 ACUTE CONJUNCTIVITIS
3723 OTHER AND UNSPECIFIED CONJUNCTIVITIS
3729 UNSPECIFIED DISORDER OF CONJUNCTIVA
3732 CHALAZION
3736 PARASITIC INFESTATION OF EYELID
3739 UNSPECIFIED INFLAMMATION OF EYELID
36000 PURULENT ENDOPHTHALMITIS, UNSPECIFIED
36011 SYMPATHETIC UVEITIS
36012 PANUVEITIS
36019 OTHER ENDOPHTHALMITIS
36212 EXUDATIVE RETINOPATHY
36320 CHORIORETINITIS, UNSPECIFIED
36322 HARADA’S DISEASE
36403 SECONDARY IRIDOCYCLITIS, INFECTIOUS
36404 SECONDARY IRIDOCYCLITIS, NONINFECTIOUS
36410 CHRONIC IRIDOCYCLITIS, UNSPECIFIED
36424 VOGT-KOYANAGI SYNDROME
37021 PUNCTATE KERATITIS
37031 PHLYCTENULAR KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS
37040 KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37049 OTHER KERATOCONJUNCTIVITIS
37055 CORNEAL ABSCESS
37059 OTHER INTERSTITIAL AND DEEP KERATITIS
37200 ACUTE CONJUNCTIVITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37202 ACUTE FOLLICULAR CONJUNCTIVITIS
37203 OTHER MUCOPURULENT CONJUNCTIVITIS
37205 ACUTE ATOPIC CONJUNCTIVITIS
37211 SIMPLE CHRONIC CONJUNCTIVITIS
37213 VERNAL CONJUNCTIVITIS
37214 OTHER CHRONIC ALLERGIC CONJUNCTIVITIS
37220 BLEPHAROCONJUNCTIVITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37230 CONJUNCTIVITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37240 PTERYGIUM, UNSPECIFIED
37261 GRANULOMA OF CONJUNCTIVA
37300 BLEPHARITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37311 HORDEOLUM EXTERNUM
37312 HORDEOLUM INTERNUM
37313 ABSCESS OF EYELID
37400 ENTROPION, UNSPECIFIED
37405 TRICHIASIS OF EYELID WITHOUT ENTROPION
37500 DACRYOADENITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37502 CHRONIC DACRYOADENITIS
37530 DACRYOCYSTITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37532 ACUTE DACRYOCYSTITIS
37541 CHRONIC CANALICULITIS
37542 CHRONIC DACRYOCYSTITIS
37543 LACRIMAL MUCOCELE
37600 ACUTE INFLAMMATION OF ORBIT, UNSPECIFIED
37601 ORBITAL CELLULITIS
37610 CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF ORBIT, UNSPECIFIED
37611 ORBITAL GRANULOMA
37612 ORBITAL MYOSITIS
37613 PARASITIC INFESTATION OF ORBIT
37730 OPTIC NEURITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37731 OPTIC PAPILLITIS
37732 RETROBULBAR NEURITIS (ACUTE)
37739 OTHER OPTIC NEURITIS
37900 SCLERITIS, UNSPECIFIED
37909 OTHER SCLERITIS
376010 PERIORBITAL CELLULITIS
Retinopathy of prematurity 36220 RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY, UNSPECIFIED
36221 RETROLENTAL FIBROPLASIA
36223 RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY, STAGE 1
362211 RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY
Visual disturbances 3670 HYPERMETROPIA
3671 MYOPIA
3672 ASTIGMATISM
3682 DIPLOPIA
3688 OTHER SPECIFIED VISUAL DISTURBANCES
3689 UNSPECIFIED VISUAL DISTURBANCE
3698 UNQUALIFIED VISUAL LOSS, ONE EYE
3699 UNSPECIFIED VISUAL LOSS
3780 ESOTROPIA
36021 PROGRESSIVE HIGH (DEGENERATIVE) MYOPIA
36720 ASTIGMATISM, UNSPECIFIED
36731 ANISOMETROPIA
36781 TRANSIENT REFRACTIVE CHANGE
36800 AMBLYOPIA, UNSPECIFIED
36801 STRABISMIC AMBLYOPIA
36811 SUDDEN VISUAL LOSS
36812 TRANSIENT VISUAL LOSS
36840 VISUAL FIELD DEFECT, UNSPECIFIED
36900 BLINDNESS OF BOTH EYES, IMPAIRMENT LEVEL NOT FURTHER SPECIFIED
36960 BLINDNESS, ONE EYE, NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED
36970 LOW VISION, ONE EYE, NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED
37775 CORTICAL BLINDNESS
37800 ESOTROPIA, UNSPECIFIED
37801 MONOCULAR ESOTROPIA
37805 ALTERNATING ESOTROPIA
37810 EXOTROPIA, UNSPECIFIED
37815 ALTERNATING EXOTROPIA
37817 ALTERNATING EXOTROPIA WITH V PATTERN
37820 INTERMITTENT HETEROTROPIA, UNSPECIFIED
37821 INTERMITTENT ESOTROPIA, MONOCULAR
37824 INTERMITTENT EXOTROPIA, ALTERNATING
37830 HETEROTROPIA, UNSPECIFIED
37831 HYPERTROPIA
37832 HYPOTROPIA
37835 ACCOMMODATIVE COMPONENT IN ESOTROPIA
37881 PALSY OF CONJUGATE GAZE
37885 ANOMALIES OF DIVERGENCE
Not otherwise specified 3612 SEROUS RETINAL DETACHMENT
3619 UNSPECIFIED RETINAL DETACHMENT
3633 CHORIORETINAL SCARS
3648 OTHER DISORDERS OF IRIS AND CILIARY BODY
3651 OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA
3659 UNSPECIFIED GLAUCOMA
3669 UNSPECIFIED CATARACT
3769 UNSPECIFIED DISORDER OF ORBIT
3770 PAPILLEDEMA
3789 UNSPECIFIED DISORDER OF EYE MOVEMENTS
3798 OTHER SPECIFIED DISORDERS OF EYE AND ADNEXA
36020 DEGENERATIVE DISORDER OF GLOBE, UNSPECIFIED
36023 SIDEROSIS OF GLOBE
36030 HYPOTONY OF EYE, UNSPECIFIED
36033 HYPOTONY ASSOCIATED WITH OTHER OCULAR DISORDERS
36041 BLIND HYPOTENSIVE EYE
36043 HEMOPHTHALMOS, EXCEPT CURRENT INJURY
36044 LEUCOCORIA
36100 RETINAL DETACHMENT WITH RETINAL DEFECT, UNSPECIFIED
36103 RECENT RETINAL DETACHMENT, PARTIAL, WITH GIANT TEAR
36104 RECENT RETINAL DETACHMENT, PARTIAL, WITH RETINAL DIALYSIS
36105 RECENT RETINAL DETACHMENT, TOTAL OR SUBTOTAL
36107 OLD RETINAL DETACHMENT, TOTAL OR SUBTOTAL
36110 RETINOSCHISIS, UNSPECIFIED
36133 MULTIPLE DEFECTS OF RETINA WITHOUT DETACHMENT
36181 TRACTION DETACHMENT OF RETINA
36202 PROLIFERATIVE DIABETIC RETINOPATHY
36210 BACKGROUND RETINOPATHY, UNSPECIFIED
36211 HYPERTENSIVE RETINOPATHY
36216 RETINAL NEOVASCULARIZATION NOS
36229 OTHER NONDIABETIC PROLIFERATIVE RETINOPATHY
36231 CENTRAL RETINAL ARTERY OCCLUSION
36234 TRANSIENT RETINAL ARTERIAL OCCLUSION
36235 CENTRAL RETINAL VEIN OCCLUSION
36240 RETINAL LAYER SEPARATION, UNSPECIFIED
36250 MACULAR DEGENERATION (SENILE) OF RETINA, UNSPECIFIED
36254 MACULAR CYST, HOLE, OR PSEUDOHOLE OF RETINA
36256 MACULAR PUCKERING OF RETINA
36263 LATTICE DEGENERATION OF RETINA
36270 HEREDITARY RETINAL DYSTROPHY, UNSPECIFIED
36273 VITREORETINAL DYSTROPHIES
36274 PIGMENTARY RETINAL DYSTROPHY
36281 RETINAL HEMORRHAGE
36330 CHORIORETINAL SCAR, UNSPECIFIED
36332 OTHER MACULAR SCARS OF RETINA
36361 CHOROIDAL HEMORRHAGE, UNSPECIFIED
36370 CHOROIDAL DETACHMENT, UNSPECIFIED
36372 HEMORRHAGIC CHOROIDAL DETACHMENT
36405 HYPOPYON
36441 HYPHEMA OF IRIS AND CILIARY BODY
36470 ADHESIONS OF IRIS, UNSPECIFIED
36471 POSTERIOR SYNECHIAE OF IRIS
36472 ANTERIOR SYNECHIAE OF IRIS
36474 ADHESIONS AND DISRUPTIONS OF PUPILLARY MEMBRANES
36475 PUPILLARY ABNORMALITIES
36476 IRIDODIALYSIS
36477 RECESSION OF CHAMBER ANGLE OF EYE
36489 OTHER DISORDERS OF IRIS AND CILIARY BODY
36500 PREGLAUCOMA, UNSPECIFIED
36504 OCULAR HYPERTENSION
36514 GLAUCOMA OF CHILDHOOD
36520 PRIMARY ANGLE-CLOSURE GLAUCOMA, UNSPECIFIED
36560 GLAUCOMA ASSOCIATED WITH UNSPECIFIED OCULAR DISORDER
36600 NONSENILE CATARACT, UNSPECIFIED
36610 SENILE CATARACT, UNSPECIFIED
36612 INCIPIENT SENILE CATARACT
36616 SENILE NUCLEAR SCLEROSIS
36620 TRAUMATIC CATARACT, UNSPECIFIED
36630 CATARACTA COMPLICATA, UNSPECIFIED
36650 AFTER-CATARACT, UNSPECIFIED
36813 VISUAL DISCOMFORT
36815 OTHER VISUAL DISTORTIONS AND ENTOPTIC PHENOMENA
36816 PSYCHOPHYSICAL VISUAL DISTURBANCES
37000 CORNEAL ULCER, UNSPECIFIED
37003 CENTRAL CORNEAL ULCER
37004 HYPOPYON ULCER
37100 CORNEAL OPACITY, UNSPECIFIED
37105 PHTHISICAL CORNEA
37120 CORNEAL EDEMA, UNSPECIFIED
37123 BULLOUS KERATOPATHY
37140 CORNEAL DEGENERATION, UNSPECIFIED
37142 RECURRENT EROSION OF CORNEA
37143 BAND-SHAPED KERATOPATHY
37150 HEREDITARY CORNEAL DYSTROPHY, UNSPECIFIED
37157 ENDOTHELIAL CORNEAL DYSTROPHY
37158 OTHER POSTERIOR CORNEAL DYSTROPHIES
37160 KERATOCONUS, UNSPECIFIED
37162 KERATOCONUS, ACUTE HYDROPS
37170 CORNEAL DEFORMITY, UNSPECIFIED
37172 DESCEMETOCELE
37263 SYMBLEPHARON
37272 CONJUNCTIVAL HEMORRHAGE
37273 CONJUNCTIVAL EDEMA
37274 VASCULAR ABNORMALITIES OF CONJUNCTIVA
37275 CONJUNCTIVAL CYSTS
37289 OTHER DISORDERS OF CONJUNCTIVA
37420 LAGOPHTHALMOS, UNSPECIFIED
37430 PTOSIS OF EYELID, UNSPECIFIED
37451 XANTHELASMA OF EYELID
37482 EDEMA OF EYELID
37484 CYSTS OF EYELIDS
37489 OTHER DISORDERS OF EYELID
37515 TEAR FILM INSUFFICIENCY, UNSPECIFIED
37520 EPIPHORA, UNSPECIFIED AS TO CAUSE
37521 EPIPHORA DUE TO EXCESS LACRIMATION
37552 STENOSIS OF LACRIMAL PUNCTUM
37553 STENOSIS OF LACRIMAL CANALICULI
37554 STENOSIS OF LACRIMAL SAC
37555 OBSTRUCTION OF NASOLACRIMAL DUCT, NEONATAL
37556 STENOSIS OF NASOLACRIMAL DUCT, ACQUIRED
37561 LACRIMAL FISTULA
37630 EXOPHTHALMOS, UNSPECIFIED
37633 ORBITAL EDEMA OR CONGESTION
37641 HYPERTELORISM OF ORBIT
37646 ENLARGEMENT OF ORBIT
37651 ENOPHTHALMOS DUE TO ATROPHY OF ORBITAL TISSUE
37681 ORBITAL CYSTS
37689 OTHER ORBITAL DISORDERS
37700 PAPILLEDEMA, UNSPECIFIED
37703 PAPILLEDEMA ASSOCIATED WITH RETINAL DISORDER
37710 OPTIC ATROPHY, UNSPECIFIED
37721 DRUSEN OF OPTIC DISC
37724 PSEUDOPAPILLEDEMA
37741 ISCHEMIC OPTIC NEUROPATHY
37749 OTHER DISORDERS OF OPTIC NERVE
37852 THIRD OR OCULOMOTOR NERVE PALSY, TOTAL
37853 FOURTH OR TROCHLEAR NERVE PALSY
37854 SIXTH OR ABDUCENS NERVE PALSY
37855 EXTERNAL OPHTHALMOPLEGIA
37871 DUANE’S SYNDROME
37887 OTHER DISSOCIATED DEVIATION OF EYE MOVEMENTS
37923 VITREOUS HEMORRHAGE
37924 OTHER VITREOUS OPACITIES
37929 OTHER DISORDERS OF VITREOUS
37931 APHAKIA
37932 SUBLUXATION OF LENS
37933 ANTERIOR DISLOCATION OF LENS
37934 POSTERIOR DISLOCATION OF LENS
37941 ANISOCORIA
37942 MIOSIS (PERSISTENT), NOT DUE TO MIOTICS
37943 MYDRIASIS (PERSISTENT), NOT DUE TO MYDRIATICS
37950 NYSTAGMUS, UNSPECIFIED
37951 CONGENITAL NYSTAGMUS
37952 LATENT NYSTAGMUS
37954 NYSTAGMUS ASSOCIATED WITH DISORDERS OF THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM
37955 DISSOCIATED NYSTAGMUS
37956 OTHER FORMS OF NYSTAGMUS
37959 OTHER IRREGULARITIES OF EYE MOVEMENTS
37991 PAIN IN OR AROUND EYE
37992 SWELLING OR MASS OF EYE
37993 REDNESS OR DISCHARGE OF EYE
37999 OTHER ILL-DEFINED DISORDERS OF EYEa

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, I.H. and E.S.; Formal analysis, E.S.; Methodology, E.T., C.B. and E.S.; Project administration, E.T.; Resources, E.T. and T.R.; Supervision, I.H.; Validation, E.T., N.F.R. and E.S.; Writing—original draft, I.H.; Writing—review & editing, I.H., S.L. and E.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Soroka University Medical Center (protocol #0357-19-SOR, October 2019).

Informed Consent Statement

Patient consent was waived since the analysis was based on a deidentified computerized database.

Data Availability Statement

Unavailable according to the Helsinki protocol.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding Statement

This research received no external funding.

Footnotes

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

Unavailable according to the Helsinki protocol.


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