Medicine: Early Blindness

Of U.S. babies born prematurely, over 12% suffer from “retrolental fibroplasia,” a growth of tissue behind the eye’s lens.

The eye of a premature baby is full of blood vessels which would have disappeared in the last few weeks of a normal pregnancy. In the unlucky ones, the vessels never go away, causing partial or total blindness. At three months, the child’s eyes, still the same dull blue they were at birth, move jerkily, and a whitish tissue may be seen behind the pupils. Boston Eye Specialist Dr. Theodore L. Terry believes that exposure to too-early light may be the cause, recommends keeping the baby in the dark.

Some 5% of infants with retrolental fibroplasia also suffer from a complication — congenital glaucoma (hardening of the eyeball). Eyeman Terry says that pupil-contracting miotics (e.g., morphine, nico tine), if administered soon enough after birth, would knock the percentage down to 1. Other early babies are born with lento-cornea (adhesion of the lens to the cornea). A simple operation, if performed soon enough, can save their sight.