Ocular Trauma during Amniocentesis

To the Editor: Diagnostic and therapeutic transabdominal amniocentesis is being applied to a growing number of antenatal problems. Although the risk to the fetus is considered small, a sufficient number of needle punctures and other complications have been reported — for example, by Creasman, Lawrence and Thiede (Fetal Complications of Amniocentesis. JAMA 204:949–952, 1968) — to emphasize the need for continued assessment of the indications and technics used in this procedure. To our knowledge, ocular damage to the fetus has not been reported. However, we recently saw a 17-month-old boy with evidence of such a complication after amniocentesis performed at ….