RT Journal
A1 Good WV, Hardy RJ
T1 THe dilemma of exercising clinical judgment in the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity—reply
JF Archives of Ophthalmology
JO Archives of Ophthalmology
YR 2005
FD March 1
VO 123
IS 3
SP 409
OP 410
DO 10.1001/archopht.123.3.409
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archopht.123.3.409
AB 
We thank the authors for their interest and comments. One theme that emerges from these letters is concern about treatment of eyes where spontaneous involution of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) might otherwise occur. Computations provided by Dr Averbukh offer a “saved to treated ratio” in an effort to evaluate the amount of unnecessary treatment in the Early Treatment for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ETROP) study. Dr Vander and colleagues calculate a number needed to treat (NNT) and suggest that, at least for zone II high-risk prethreshold eyes, further analysis should be performed before recommending this as a standard-of-care intervention. Dr Jalali and colleagues offer a different method for calculating an NNT. All these computations are problematic for a number of reasons.