Very pre-term birth and visual impairment. A retrospective investigation of 411 infants of gestational age 30 weeks or less, 1983-89 Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen.

In a group of infants and children of very preterm delivery (gestational age 30 weeks or less, n = 411, Rigshospitalet Copenhagen 1983-89) 13 got blind due to retinopathy of prematurity (3.2%) while another 13 with sequelae retained useful vision of at least one eye. One child later acquired bilateral retinoblastoma, with a free interval of one year from a protracted course of ROP stage 2-3 eventually to regress. The 411 surviving subjects being recruited from a total of 515 of a similarly low gestational age, the survival rate in the 7-year period under study was just below 80%. No doubt, the high survival rate in this very pre-term group is of importance for the risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity, but the role of the ophthalmologist in controlling the infants is also emphasized. Generally, stricter observation schemes are recommended. Probably, the ROP frequency in the sample of 23.6% is an underestimate.