Preventing Blindness in Premature Infants

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Abstract
In 1942 Terry reported a retinal vasculopathy causing blindness in premature infants.1 The condition was called retrolental fibroplasia, because a fibrovascular mass could be seen behind the crystalline lens. Hundreds of babies in the United States still become blind or visually handicapped each year from this disease, now known as retinopathy of prematurity.Initially, the cause appeared to be excess oxygen. In the 1940s and 1950s, premature infants were treated with high concentrations of oxygen to keep them alive. In the absence of a noninvasive method of measuring blood oxygen saturation, there was no way to titrate the amount of . . .