A Ten Year Retrospective Study on the Patterns of Retinoblastoma in Children: Central Hospital Warri, Nigeria

Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most occurred neoplasm of the eye in children arising from immature retina cells in one or both eyes, presenting about 3% of all childhood malignancies , hence therapeutic approaches need to consider the cure of the disease and preserve vision with minimal longterm side effects. The research aimed at observing the pattern of retinoblastoma between the year 2009 to 2018 among children who attended Ophthalmology department at the Central Hospital, Warri, South Southern Nigeria. Records on retinoblastoma among children < 13years were reviewed from hospital records and fifty two cases were recorded as retinoblastoma. Parameters that were taken into consideration were age, gender and anatomical site of the disease. Chisquare test was used to investigate an association between age, gender and patterns of retinoblastoma. Significance was accepted at p<0.05.Findings from this study showed that 65.38% males and 34.61% females were affected. Unilateral cases were more predominant (80.77%) than bilateral cases (19.23%). The disease occured more in children < 4 years of age ( 51.92%) . Findings from our study also showed that age and gender had a significant effect on the patterns of retinoblastoma ( x2= 18.995;7.393., p= 0.001;0.025) . It was observed from this study that bilateral and unilateral cases of retinoblastoma occurred more in males than females.

Key Words: Retinoblastoma; Bilateral; Unilateral; Central Hospital Warri; Children