RESEARCH ARTICLE
NAVILAS Laser System Focal Laser Treatment for Diabetic Macular Edema - One Year Results of a Case Series
Jesse J. Jung*, 1, 2, 3, 4, Roberto Gallego-Pinazo11, 2, 5, Antonio Lleó-Pérez6, Jonathan I. Huz1 , Irene A. Barbazetto1, 2, 3, 4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 48
Last Page: 53
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-7-48
DOI: 10.2174/1874364101307010048
Article History:
Received Date: 23/6/2013Revision Received Date: 8/7/2013
Acceptance Date: 22/7/2013
Electronic publication date: 6 /9/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose:
To report one year outcomes of focal Navigated Retina Laser Therapy (NAVILAS) for diabetic macular edema (DME).
Methods:
Retrospective cohort series of 7 diabetic patients treated with NAVILAS focal laser. Statistical analysis included descriptive and continuous variables (Best-corrected logMAR Visual Acuity and time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters) which were compared using a non-parametric procedure, the Friedman tests for repeated measures. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to denote statistical significance.
Results:
diabetic patients (4 male; 3 female) with an average age of 60.8 years (range 48-85 years) were included. All treated eyes were phakic; patients had an average hemoglobin A1C of 9.1 (range 7.8-11.7) at baseline and 8.0 (range 7.4-8.4) at 12 months. Six of the 7 patients had intravitreal bevacizumab injections prior to focal laser treatment with 1 patient having had more than 1 prior injection (total 3). At 12 months, median logMAR improved from 0.695 (± interquartile range 0.574) to 0.477 (± 0.573, p <0.001). OCT median central foveal thickness decreased from 248 (± 112) to 220 µm (± 41, p <0.001); total macular volume decreased from 7.84 (± 0.8) to 7.44 mm3 (± 0.7, p = 0.117); and largest macular subfield thickness decreased from 354 (± 116) to 289 µm (± 42, p <0.001). All patients were treated without complications.
Conclusions:
Focal NAVILAS showed to be safe and effective in treating DME with improvement in visual acuity and macular edema on OCT over 12 months in this case series. In clinical practice, combined treatment with focal laser including NAVILAS and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor may provide long-term improvement in DME.
