PERSISTENCE AND HYPERPLASIA OF PRIMARY VITREOUS; RETROLENTAL FIBROPLASIA-TWO ENTITIES

Abstract

CONSIDERABLE attention has been given to blindness of infants,¹ especially premature infants, due to a condition or conditions called by such various terms as retrolental fibroplasia, persistence and hyperplasia of the primary vitreous, remains of the tunica vasculosa lentis and congenital encephalo-ophthalmic dysplasia. All agree that there has been a large increase in the incidence of this type of blindness. At the Institute of Ophthalmology, we have seen 202 cases and 128 of these have occurred in the past three years. At the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary² 165 blind preschool children are recorded as residing in Massachusetts, and in 108 of these the blindness is due to retrolental fibroplasia. As the high incidence of the disease has occurred only in the past ten or more years, and as the disease prior to this period was extremely rare, ophthalmologists over the country have not all incorporated the diagnosis