Fine needle diathermy safe, effective in corneal neovascularization, study shows

Researchers have found that fine needle diathermy may be an inexpensive adjunct to anti-VEGF treatment in patients with corneal neovascularization.

Trikha and colleagues reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology that they studied 56 eyes from 52 patients over 5 years. All of the eyes underwent fine needle diathermy (FND) for corneal neovascularization (CoNV).

The researchers recorded indications, intraoperative complications and postoperative visual acuity after each treatment, as well as the procedure time, evidence of regression and number of treatments, according to the study. The majority of patients suffered from two recorded indications: 25 participants had herpes simplex keratitis (HSK) and six participants had microbial keratitis/peripheral ulcerative keratitis.

Results showed that 68.1% of patients showed regression of CoNV at their first follow-up, after a mean of 6.9 weeks, and 89.3% of patients showed regression with two or less treatments, as detailed in the study. They also showed that mean visual acuity increased to 0.72 from 0.82.

Researchers noted a 2% incidence of intrastromal and subconjunctival hemorrhage.

"In the largest case series reported, FND appears to be a safe and effective technique in the long term to induce regression of CoNV, with significant improvement in the visual acuity of patients with HSK," the authors concluded.

"We postulate that FND may be an office-based, inexpensive, useful, safe and effective treatment modality for established, mature corneal new vessels, as an adjunct to anti-VEGF use or for those recalcitrant to anti-VEGF blockade."

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Source:

Br J Ophthalmol. 2014;doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-303729.