[Acute retinopathy of prematurity: shift of the manifestation risk to extremely premature infants by neonatal intensive care medicine].

A total of 381 surviving prematures (birthweight less than or equal to 2500 g) at the heidelberg University Children's Hospital were examined ophthalmologically between January 1986 and June 1988. Of the 762 eyes, 112 (14.7%) showed acute retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). In our study, a correlation between birthweight, gestational age and retinopathy of prematurity was confirmed. In addition, the results concerning severity, differences between the right and left eye, and the incidence in twins and multiple births were demonstrated. Data were compared with the data in 29 papers dealing with the prevalence of acute ROP since 1968: 12,468 preterm infants were investigated in all papers; 2,087 of these infants (16.7%) showed ROP. In the literature, 8.4% of the premature babies with a birthweight of 1501 to 2500 g were found to have ROP. In our group with the same birthweight, only one baby (birthweight 1510 g) had retinopathy (0.6%). The fact that the average ROP prevalence has not changed significantly indicates that the risk of having retinopathy of prematurity has switched over to the more immature preterms, whose prognosis of survival has improved in the last few years as a result of the improvement in neonatal care.