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Management of cystoid macular edema secondary to retinitis pigmentosa via subliminal micropulse yellow laser

Lasers in Medical Science volume 36, pages 317–323 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

To investigate the effects of subliminal micropulse yellow laser application on the central macular thickness and best-corrected visual acuity in cystoid macular edema secondary to retinitis pigmentosa patients. This prospective open-label clinical trial, conducted between January 2018 and October 2019, included 32 eyes of 29 patients who had cystoid macular edema secondary to retinitis pigmentosa. Patients were treated by subliminal micropulse yellow laser for one session. Central macular thickness and best-corrected visual acuity changes were investigated just before the treatment and 1 year later after the one session of the treatment. The mean central macular thickness was 651.3 μm before the treatment and 247.7 μm at 12 months after the treatment. The decrease in mean central macular thickness was statistically significant (p = 0.01). Median best-corrected visual acuity was 66.8 ETDRS letters before the treatment and 70.0 letters at 12 months after the treatment. The increase in best-corrected visual acuity was not statistically significant (p = 0.18). Eighty-six percent of the patients stated that the quality of central vision increased and that color vision, contrast sensitivity, and distortion improved. We did not encounter any serious adverse events related to the application of subliminal micropulse yellow laser. The subliminal micropulse yellow laser seems to be a therapeutic, effective, and safe option for the treatment of non-inflammatory and resistant cystoid macular edema secondary to retinitis pigmentosa patients. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04234438, January 17, 2020.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the participants of the study. We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Emin ÖZMERT for the training and support on micropulse laser applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ankara University Technopolis, Bioretina, Ankara, Turkey

    Umut Arslan

  2. Neorama Ofis 55-56 Yaşam Cad, No 13/A Beştepe /Yenimahalle, Ankara, Turkey

    Umut Arslan

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  1. Umut Arslan
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Correspondence to Umut Arslan.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethics committee approval for the subliminal micropulse laser study was obtained from the Ankara University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Ethics Committee (20-1249-17). The study was performed in accordance with the tenets of the 2013 Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from the patients prior to enrollment.

Authorship

All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published.

Medical writing assistance

Medical writing and editorial assistance was provided by Ali Hariri from the American Manuscript Editors Company, which was funded by the authors.

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Cite this article

Arslan, U. Management of cystoid macular edema secondary to retinitis pigmentosa via subliminal micropulse yellow laser. Lasers Med Sci 36, 317–323 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-020-03031-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-020-03031-0

Keywords

  • Retinitis pigmentosa
  • Cystoid macular edema
  • Intraretinal cysts
  • Subliminal micropulse laser