An eight-week-old infant was admitted to an ophthalmology clinic in China for examination and treatment. The boy was born at 25 weeks of gestation and weighed 850 grams at birth. He was immediately admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit with respiratory distress syndrome after birth, and an eye examination at seven weeks revealed retinopathy of prematurity. Upon examination at the clinic, neovascularization of the iris was observed, as well as dilation and tortuosity of the retinal vessels in both eyes. The blood supply extended to the posterior retina, indicating severe disease. Intraocular pressure was normal. Doctors Xinyu Zhao and Guoming Zhang from Shenzhen Eye Hospital shared this case in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The specialists decided to inject a drug that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) into the eyes to stop the growth of new vessels. To do this, plastic expanders were installed in the eyes, with the help of which a spiderweb vascular network was observed in the anterior chambers of both eyes, tightly covering the anterior capsule of the lens. Retinopathy of prematurity is characterized by a slowdown in the development of retinal vessels, which is replaced by their increased proliferation (presumably due to premature exposure to light and oxygen) and growth into those parts of the eye where they should not normally be. Without timely treatment, this disease leads to blindness. An injection of the anti-VEGF drug followed by laser therapy at the age of 17 weeks stopped the development of retinopathy and stabilized the condition of the retina.
