Featured Article for October 14, 2021
Retinopathy of Prematurity
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), initially described as retrolental fibroplasia by Terry in 1942 was the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States (US). To date, three "epidemics" of blindness due to ROP have been described. The first epidemic occurred in the 1940s-1950s in industrialized countries primarily due to unmonitored supplemental oxygen. Regulation and monitoring of high oxygen at birth caused ROP to virtually disappear, but as a result of advances neonatal care, premature infants survived at earlier gestational ages and lower birth weights, and ROP re-emerged to be a serious problem, leading to the second epidemic that began in the 1970s in industrialized countries.
