CLINICAL AND AUTOPSY FINDINGS IN EARLY RETROLENTAL FIBROPLASIA

Abstract

FEW REPORTS of the pathologic changes in early cases of retrolental fibroplasia have appeared in the literature. Heath,¹ in 1950, classified retrolental fibroplasia as a syndrome and described the pathologic findings in the early and later stages of retrolental fibroplasia in premature infants. He described the primary disease as "an edematous, hemorrhagic and proliferative process associated with hamartomatous neovascular tissue in the retina, a process best described as a retinopathy of premature birth." Heath defined "hamartoma" as an accumulation of vascular tissue, normal in location but excessive in amount, and without the property of malignant growth. Reese,² in 1951, described the autopsy observations in a case of early retrolental fibroplasia. Sections of these eyes showed "angiomatous tissue extending from the retina into the vitreous, particularly in the periphery around the base of the vitreous." Reese stated that the outstanding feature is the angioplastic process in the vitreous and