Abstract
Excerpt: Fifty years ago, the incidence of retrolental fibroplasia (RLF) resulting in blindness at the Premature Station of the Sarah Morris Hospital for Children at the Michael Reese Hospital was noted to be around 5% in infants with birth weights of < 1250 g. The study was prompted by prior reports of RLF. The authors presented two studies of retrolental fibroplasia in infants: the first covered the time period from 1922 to 1951 and included 415 babies with a blindness rate of 5.3%; the second study included 432 infants with 8% showing signs of RLF and 2.5% progressing to blindness. The authors concluded that that incidence of RLF was greatly increased in infants < 1500 g.