Rs. Caflisch et al., OPHTHALMOLOGICAL DISORDERS IN CHILDREN WI TH EXTREMELY LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT AT THE AGE OF IN YEARS BORN IN SWITZERLAND BETWEEN 1983-1985, Monatsschrift fur Kinderheilkunde, 146(3), 1998, pp. 230-234
Aim of the study: The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence
of ophthalmological abnormalities in 10 year old survivors with extrem
ely low birthweight of 500-999 g. In addition the association between
retinopathy of prematurity and other ophthalmological disorders was st
udied. Methods: The parents of all surviving newborns (N=117) with bir
thweight 500-999 g born in Switzerland between 1983 and 1985, were ask
ed for eye problems in their children. When the history was positive,
additional information was obtained from the ophthalmologist. Results:
At the age of 10+/-1 years the very low birthweight infants had signi
ficantly more ophthalmological problems (37%) than found in the genera
l population (10%). Whereas low Vision (<1.0) of at least one eye (35%
), strabism (19%), amblyopia (11%) and astigmatism (7.5%) were signifi
cantly more frequent compared with the normal population, myopia (12%)
was not. Retinopathy was not significantly associated with other opht
halmological disorders. Conclusions: We conclude that all extremely lo
w birth weight infants irrespectively of retinopathy have a significan
tly increased risk for ophthalmological disorders. Therefore they shou
ld have regular ophthalmological reevaluations until school age.