ABSTRACT
Background It is thought in recently that photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an effective treatment method for chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), but the dosage of verteporfin and its long-term efficacy and complications is rarely elucidated ever before.Objective This study was to observe the long-term efficacy and safety of 60％ dose verteporfin PDT for chronic CSC.Methods This is a retrospective study and a self-controlled design was used.The clinical data of 25 eyes of 21 chronic CSC patients who received 60％-dose verteporfin PDT in Henan Eye Institute from January 2009 to May 2010 were reviewed, with the male 18 (85.71％) and female 3 (14.29％) as well as monocular CSC 17 patients and binocular CSC 4 patients.The average ages of the patients were (43±5) years.Fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) , indocyanine green angiography (ICGA), optical coherence tomography(OCT) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were examined in all the patients before and after treatment.PDT with the 60％-dose verteporfin (3.6 mg/m2) was carried out on the CSC eyes.The treated eyes were examined 2 weeks, 1 month and 3 months after PDT.The BCVA,subfoveal choroid thickness,FFA and ICGA findings before and after PDT were compared.The following-up duration was 5 years or more.Results The BCVA before and 3 months after PDT were 0.5 ±0.1 and 0.9±0.2, respectively, with a statistically significant difference between them (t =19.17,P =0.00).The subfoveal choroidal thickness value 3 months after PDT was (326.56±39.47) μm,which was significantly reduced in comparison with (486.24 ±47.53) μm before PDT (t =25.17, P =0.00).FFA and ICGA showed that the leakage of fluorescein (hyperfluorescence) was disappeared in all the treated eyes.No systemic or local adverse effects and recurrence were observed during the follow-up period.Conclusions On the basis of the results of this study and available information,60％-dose verteporfin PDT seems to have a better long-term efficacy and safety than full-dose verteporfin in treating chronic CSC.