Retrolental Fibroplasia and Vitamin E in the Preterm Infant—Comparison of Oral Versus Intramuscular:Oral Administration

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy of four early intramuscular injections of vitamin E given in addition to continuous minimal oral vitamin E supplementation, 168 very low-birth-weight infants (≤1,500 g) have enrolled in a randomized, double-masked, clinical study. All infants received vitamin E orally, 100 mg/kg/d. In addition, on days 1, 2, 4, and 6, seventy-nine infants received vitamin E intramuscularly, 15, 10, 10, and 10 mg/kg, respectively. On the same days, 89 control infants received placebo intramuscular injections. Multivariate analysis of the 135 infants who survived ≥10 weeks showed no significant difference in the development of severe retrolental fibroplasia between these two supplementation schedules (P = .86). Plasma vitamin E levels never exceeded a mean of 3.3 mg/100 mL, and no toxicity was observed. Ultrastructural analyses of seven pairs of whole eye donations from infants receiving IM vitamin E demonstrated identical kinetics of gap junction formation between adjacent spindle cells as compared with 13 pairs of whole eye donations from control infants (P > .3). Therefore, oral vitamin E supplementation affords retinal protection against the development of severe retrolental fibroplasia when initiated on the first day of life and maintained continuously until retinal vascularization is complete.