A baby born at 25 weeks gestation with a birth weight of 800 g who suffered from severe respiratory distress syndrome with metabolic acidosis is described. Active retinopathy of prematurity, stages II and III, was found in the right eye at the age of 1 month and in the left eye a month later. Both eyes were treated by peripheral cryopexy. The pathological examination showed that cryopexy was effective in preventing progression of the retinopathy to cause severe cicatrisation.