[Complications during the neonatal period can cause visual impairment later in life. Only few of the children were born prematurely--a surprising result of the study].

Forty per cent of children known at our low vision centre at the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden, had been treated in a neonatal ward after birth. Only few of them were born prematurely. Half of the children had an additional neurological handicap. The present neonatal screening program detects most cases of congenital cataract and all cases with retinopathy of prematurity.