Studies Show Improvement for Babies with Retinopathy with Prematurity If Treatment Started Early
The cause is poorly understood. But it is known that too much or too little oxygen worsens the condition. There is some potential that it could heal on it's own if it is a mild case. There maybe the development of strabismus ( misaligned eye), nearsightedness, or both. It is however, usual for eye surgery to be needed to prevent visual impairment and even blindness.
Research is ongoing for premature babies born with retinopathy of prematurity. These children seem to be seeing better by the age of six when treatment for them was started very early than those who were not.
This condition has been undergoing research for some time now. Previous studies allowed researchers to identity two types of retinopathy in prematurity. Type 1 and type 2. The identifying characteristics included the area of the retina affected, and the presence or absence of additional blood vessels in the back of the eye.
Infants with the disease were randomly chosen of the 401 infants studied, to receive early treatment or just the usual conventional management. Early treatment for actual retinopathy showed benefit as early as 9 months.
The children were followed by the study group through 6 years of age. Results show that if the child had been treated early for retinopathy there was improvement in vision at 6 years of age. Whereas the child with conventional treatment showed no improvement.
Even though there were benefits for early treatment in these children and they had improvement in visual acuity, nevertheless 65.4% measured visual acuity worse than 20/40. Clearly, retinopathy of prematurity assumes an even higher priority since early treatment is beneficial for some eyes but does not result in normal visual acuity.
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Published by Susan Kaul
I am a registered nurse of 40 years experience. My background in nursing includes med-surg, orthopedic, cardiology, alcohol/drug withdrawal, treatment and rehab psychiatry, and the last 10 years I have been... View profile
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