RESUMO
AIM:To document the prognosis of laser treatment in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).METHODS:Efficacy of the intervention was evaluated using a before-after method.RESULTS:A total of 392 eyes of 341 patients with exudative AMD were examined.77.6% had choroideal neovascularisation (CNV).Before the use of indocyanine green (ICG) angiography,occult CNV was detected in only 1.8% of the eyes,but after the use of ICG angiography,this increased to 19.5% (P<0.001).Of the 349 eyes which were followed up,visual acuity had remained stable in 68.2% of the eyes.There was a statistically significant relationship between localization of lesion and visual acuity changes on pre-and post-laser treatment (P<0.001).Also there was a statistically significant relationship between localization of lesion and recurrence (P<0.05).The recurrence was less in subfoveal lesions than that in juxtafoveal and extrafoveal lesions.CONCLUSION:ICG angiography is highly important in the treatment of occult CNV.
