Sir,

I enjoyed reading the recent article by Cuthbertson et al (Eye 2004; 18: 314–315) about a female born in the UK 1939 with what was considered retinal dragging due to cicatricial ROP. This timing meant 3 years prior to Terry's original observation of what soon after acquired the label of retrolental fibroplasia, and from 1984 ROP.

I cannot beat their record, but my first similar Danish case immediately popped into my mind. Male born 1945, ‘abortive RLF’ or ‘regressed, but cicatricial ROP’, 4 years prior to our first blind baby. Mainly, Europe was late in the ROP field, because the War postponed certain therapies, among them the luxury of oxygen to small prematures.

Perspective

We always had survival of small prematures. Likewise, the two cases suggest that we probably also had ROP ‘always’ although the disease morphology was not at all recognized in the pre-Terry era (from 1942).