The Association of Retrolental Fibroplasia with Cerebral Diplegia

Prematurity and "Cerebral Palsy"

“…Thus the association with prematurity seems high in cerebral palsy due to non-rhesus jaundice and in cerebral spastic paraplegia/diplegia. The figures given by Ingram and Kerr (1954) confirm the striking association between cerebral spastic paraplegia/ diplegia and prematurity (see Table). These that, compared with full-term children, premature babies of high birth weight show a threefold increase in the incidence of cerebral spastic paraplegialdiplegia and those of lower birthweights a seventyfold increase.…”

“…Fuldner (1955) found an association between cerebral spastic paraplegia and retrolental fibroplasia. That the incidence of cerebral spastic paraplegia/diplegia in babies with retrolental fibroplasia is greater than would be expected has been shown by Ingram and Kerr (1954). However, they suggested that the cause of cerebral damage in their patients was abnormality of pregnancy and of labour, leading to post-natal asphyxia which necessitated oxygen therapy and in turn caused retrolental fibroplasia.…”

“…The condition might be of post-natal origin, from failure of final structural and functional maturation of the brain, and it would then be the degree of prematurity rather than its cause that would be linked with the frequency of the condition. The figures of Ingram and Kerr (1954), given in the Table, stress the association between a greater degree of prematurity and a greater frequency of cerebral spastic paraplegia/diplegia. A Matter for Conjecture How this particular type of cerebral palsy could be produced by prematurity itself is a matter for conjecture.…”

A Study of Cerebral Palsy in the Childhood Population of Edinburgh

“…There does seem to have been an increase in the proportion of prematurely born infants surviving in the past 15 years, indicated in one Edinburgh hospital by a 39 % reduction in the neonatal mortality in infants with birth weights between 3 and 51 lb. It has been estimated that the incidence of diplegia in prematurely born children who survive is approximately 1 %, and a large proportion of these patients give a history of neonatal asphyxia, pulmonary atelectasis and respiratory infections (Ingram and Kerr, 1954). Clearly, if an increasing number of premature infants survive, especially of those suffering from these complications, an increase in the incidence of diplegia must be expected.…”

Low Oxygen Tension in the Management of Newborn Infants

“…These changes in the oxygen tension are known to produce important vasomotor reactions in the vessels of the brain, eyes and lungs, which in human infants are of special interest, due to the correlation between the two diseases retrolental fibroplasia and hyaline membrane and oxygen therapy. The frequent coexistence of retrolental fibroplasia and cerebral palsy as shown in the papers by Ingram and Kerr (1954) and Krause (1955) may perhaps also justify relating cerebral palsy to oxygen therapy.…”