Retinopathy of prematurity: prevalence and treatment over a 20 year period at Pennsylvania Hospital.
This paper presents the results of a 20 year survey of ROP among less than or equal to 2000 g BW infants cared for at Pennsylvania Hospital. It relates changes in perinatal care and nutrition, survival rates, and serial serum E levels with incidence and severity of ROP. It includes our protocol for monitoring E nutrition so as to optimize its effectiveness at physiologic serum levels for prophylaxis for ROP. Also presented are the promising results of our experience with vitamin E at pharmacologic serum levels as a treatment for severe ROP (defined as in the Cryo ROP Trial). These indicate the need for a multicenter trial to assess the effect of pharmacologic Vitamin E therapy as an alternative or supplement to therapy of severe ROP with laser or cryo surgery.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19107.
L H
LH
Johnson
G E
GE
Quinn
S
S
Abbasi
F W
FW
Bowen
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011295:Prenatal Care; D015995:Prevalence; D012178:Retinopathy of Prematurity / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014810:Vitamin E