PEDIATRICS Vol. 81 No. 6 June 1988, pp. 884-886
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What Does the Cryotherapy Preliminary Report Mean?

DALE L. PHELPS MD1

1 Department of Pediatrics and Ophthalmology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY

The dispassionate numbers in the preliminary report of the Multicenter Trial of Cryotherapy for Retinopathy of Prematurity (CRYO-ROP)1 fail to convey the excitement I feel as a physician who now, for the first time, has a tested intervention to offer the infant with serious retinopathy of prematurity. Infants with retinopathy of prematurity at the study's threshold of severity have a 43% incidence of an unfavorable outcome in that eye, eg, retinal detachment or a fold across the macula. Either of these outcomes means severely reduced vision for life. Cryotherapy reduces the chances of an unfavorable outcome to 22%. The preliminary report, however, has left many questions unanswered.