Retinal haemorrhage occurring during birth is a common feature in the
newborn. There is no basic funduscopic or morphologic difference between
this perinatal type of haemorrhage and that in the adult. The difference
is that perinatal haemorrhage resorbs rapidly, within a few days, and no
functional defects of retinal vessels are known. The fIrst observation
of perinatal haemorrhage took place nearly 100 years ago. Many
observations have been published in short papers; what was still lacking
was a systematic pathogenic classifIcation of the different types of
haemorrhage, a compari- son of the perinatal type of other types of
retinal haemorrhage, a comparison to other perinatal ocular
haemorrhages, a detailed histologic description and a multi-faceted
correlation of haemorrhage to aetiologic factors. The author has based
his comprehensive evaluation on the observation of more than 400 newborn
infants, the reexamination of several cases with macular haemor- rhage,
the histologic work-up of serial sections and the review of extensive
literature. It is a remarkable fact that a physiologic process, birth,
is related to this type of vessel rupture, which is present during a
short period of postnatal life. In its complex analysis of these facts
and conditions this book is particularly valuable.