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Arnall Patz and Norman Alston: Oxygen and Retinopathy of Prematurity

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Abstract

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an iatrogenic disease which emerged with the development of neonatology and resuscitation of premature infants in the mid twentieth century. The nearly simultaneous contributions of Norman Henry Ashton in creating animal models of the condition and demonstrating that manipulation of supplemental oxygen could reproduce ROP experimentally, and Arnall Patz in demonstrating that restricted oxygen supplementation could reduce the incidence of ROP in premature infants in a randomized, controlled clinical trial, established this relationship conclusively and directly led to improved clinical results. Along with Patz and Ashton, many other clinicians and scientists contributed to the recognition of this previously unknown disease, identification of the association with prematurity, and demonstration that unrestricted oxygen therapy contributed to the condition including Kate Campbell, Mary Crosse, Theodore Terry, and others. In addition to reducing the prevalence of blindness in premature infants, ROP has become a model for other retinal diseases including diabetes; Patz’ trial for ROP demonstrated the power and feasibility of the randomized controlled clinical trial to investigate disease. Understanding the history of these investigators and their contributions may improve our ability to recognize and understand new and emerging diseases in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Scheie Eye institute of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Monte D. Mills MD & Graham E. Quinn MD, MSCE

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  1. Monte D. Mills MD
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  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA

    Michael F. Marmor

  2. OHSU, Casey Eye Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Daniel M. Albert

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Mills, M.D., Quinn, G.E. (2017). Arnall Patz and Norman Alston: Oxygen and Retinopathy of Prematurity. In: Marmor, M., Albert, D. (eds) Foundations of Ophthalmology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59641-9_15

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