The recrudescent epidemic of retrolental fibroplasia.

We are probably observing a recrudescent epidemic of RLF which has elicited surprisingly little attention from the medical community. Given present data, it is not unreasonable to conclude that there is a true epidemic and that its etiologic basis involves a population of infants with high susceptibility to oxygen toxicity whose oxygen status is being monitored by methods which are not sufficiently accurate to provide the necessary narrow limits of permissible O2 administration. A clinical trial which looked at the outcome of premature infants with and without transcutaneous O2 monitoring would be useful not only to determine the impact on the prevalence of RLF, but also to determine the role of this technology in the management of premature infants generally.