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High likelihood of fellow eye surgery after primary diabetic vitrectomy
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Many patients undergoing primary diabetic vitrectomy require fellow eye surgery within a few years, a retrospective study in New Zealand found. The need for diabetic vitrectomy correlated with poor survival in the population studied, the authors said.
Brendan J. Vote, FRANZCO, and colleagues at the University of Auckland analyzed 114 primary diabetic vitrectomy cases with a mean follow up of 4 years to examine the risk factors for progression to second eye surgery.
Of the patients studied, 38% underwent fellow eye surgery at a mean time of 1.6 years after the first eye surgery. At baseline, 14 patients were already blind in the fellow eye, and five patients refused second eye surgery.
A risk factor for fellow eye surgery in this series was the presence of either tractional retinal detachment or combined rhegmatogenous/tractional retinal detachment without vitreous hemorrhage in the presenting eye. Maori and Pacific Islander ethnicity was significantly associated with tractional retinal detachment.
At the time of data analysis, 57% of the patients had died. Mean time to death was 4.3 years, and 84% of those patients had renal disease at the time of the first eye surgery.
The study is published in the August issue of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.