OPHTHALMOLOGICAL DISORDERS IN CHILDREN WI TH EXTREMELY LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT AT THE AGE OF IN YEARS BORN IN SWITZERLAND BETWEEN 1983-1985

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.