Study Status: Not yet recruiting
Recruit Status: Not yet recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Propranolol for Prevention of Threshold Retinopathy of Prematurity
Brief Summary: Extremely premature infants are at risk of developing a potentially blinding eye disease, called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Currently available treatment, consisting of laser surgery or injection of drugs into the eye balls, may prevent most but not all cases of permanent ROP-mediated blindness. Both types of treatment are associated with significant costs and side effects. An orally administered drug commonly used to treat hypertension, propranolol, may be effective in halting progression of ROP to severe stages, as suggested by preliminary data from two small studies. Propranolol has been used for decades not only in adult patients but also in newborn infants with heart diseases. Moreover, it has been licensed in 2014 for the use in newborn infants with hemangiomas in the European Union, Switzerland and the United States. As severe (threshold) ROP is an overall rare disease, the effectiveness of propranolol in combating ROP can only be assessed in a large, multicenter randomized controlled trial involving hospitals caring for extremely preterm infants of diverse origin.