Short Term Clinical Courses After Panretinal Photocoagulation Treatment in Diabetic Retinopathy Patients

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the clinical courses after panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) in diabetic retinopathy patients. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study on 138 patients, 229 eyes, who have been treated with the PRP more than a year ago from June 1996 to September 2000. RESULTS: After PRP, 30% of the patients showed decreased visual acuity. The degree of decline in visual acuity was the biggest in the patients who visited 2 weeks after the treatment (p=0.005). Thirty one percent of patients showed complete regression of neovascularization and 25% showed partial regression. Sixty seven percent (38 eyes) of the patients with no previous diabetic control showed visual loss after the treatment. There were also visual losses in 16% (15 eyes) of patients with oral hypoglycemic agents and 33% (27 eyes) with insulin therapy (Spearman correlation, r=0.221, p=0.001). In the case of low visual acuity group (or=20/40). On the other hand, 62% of the patients maintained good visual acuity and only 12% showed low visual acuity in good visual acuity group. Within one year after PRP, 44 eyes (19%) of patients developed macular edema, 51 eye (22%) of patients showed vitreous hemorrhage and 3% developed tractional retinal detachment. Ten (20%) out of 51 eyes which showed vitreous hemorrhage had the operation. CONCLUSIONS: Better visual acuity before PRP and strict diabetic control affect the good prognosis after panretinal photocoagulation.