The effect of cryotherapy on oxygen-induced retinopathy in the newborn kitten

Partial cryotherapy was performed in the right eye of 14 kittens with experimental oxygen-induced retinopathy, while the left eye remained untreated as a control. Subsequent funduscopic examination and histopathological studies of all kittens showed no significant difference between the treated and untreated eyes with respect to the amount of neovascular proliferation. We attribute this negative result mainly to the fact that the cryoablation of the kittens' retina was incomplete, leaving a considerable amount of residual ischemic retina.