As more extremely pre-term infants survive in Sweden, an increasing number of babies are experiencing vision problems caused by abnormalities involving the retina, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Retinopathy of prematurity [abnormal development of blood vessels in the retina] remains an important cause of childhood blindness and visual impairment throughout the world," the authors write as background information in the article. "During the last decade, neonatal care has changed with an increase in centralization, implementation of new therapies and provision of intensive care for infants of extremely low gestational age. These changes have contributed to an increasing population of survivors in neonatal intensive care units today. The incidence of retinopathy of prematurity in these extremely preterm infants is, therefore, unknown." Dordi Austeng, M.D., of University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, and Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway, and colleagues studied Swedish infants born before 27 weeks' gestation between 2004 and 2007. Infants were screened for retinopathy of prematurity beginning at five weeks after birth and were treated for the condition according to established guidelines. During the study, 506 of 707 infants survived until the first eye examination. Of these, 368 (72.7 percent) had retinopathy of prematurity, including 37.9 percent with mild cases and 34.8 percent whose condition was severe. A total of 99 (19.6 percent) were treated.
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