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Numerous factors play role in outcomes for diabetic retinopathy
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Pretreatment visual acuity, patient age, and the number of panretinal photocoagulation treatment sessions and vitrectomies are indicators of the visual prognosis after panretinal laser photocoagulation for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, according to a Danish study.
Toke Bek and Mogens Erlandsen at Arhus University Hospital analyzed data from 4,422 panretinal photocoagulation sessions for proliferative diabetic retinopathy in 1,013 eyes of 601 patients that occurred over a course of about 18 years.
A high pretreatment visual acuity and a young age were strong positive predictors of post-treatment visual acuity, the authors said. The type of diabetes, the length of time a patient had diabetes and the number of years of treatment for diabetes did not have an influence. Visual prognosis was inversely related to the number of treatment sessions and the number of vitrectomies.
The study is published in the January issue of Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica.