ABSTRACT
The course of proliferative diabetic retinopathy involving the optic disc was followed, and the response to peripheral retinal photocoagulation monitored by argon laser in 11 patients during and after 13 pregnancies. Traditional obstetric practice assumes that pregnancy is a stimulus to irreversible progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and that timely abortion and sterilisation are essential in order to achieve control of the neovascular process. Extensive photocoagulation will cause significant regression of neovascular complexes in 63% of cases, and it confers sufficient benefits to make ophthalmic indications for therapeutic abortion and sterilisation no longer tenable.
Subject(s)
Diabetic Retinopathy/surgery , Laser Therapy , Lasers , Pregnancy in Diabetics/surgery , Adult , Blindness/etiology , Diabetic Retinopathy/complications , Diabetic Retinopathy/pathology , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Neovascularization, Pathologic , Optic Disk/blood supply , Pregnancy , Pregnancy in Diabetics/complications , Pregnancy in Diabetics/pathology , Retinal Hemorrhage/etiology , Vision Disorders/etiologyABSTRACT
A randomised controlled trial is reported of 94 patients with a symmetrical proliferative diabetic retinopathy involving the optic disc, who were treated by a peripheral retinal ablation technique using the argon laser. A highly significant difference in mean cumulative deterioration of visual acuity and blindness was shown in all but the late stages of the disease process between treated and untreated eyes. The untreated eyes exhibited far worse results. The earlier photocoagulation is initiated in the course of the proliferative process in this disease to control or preferably eliminate optic disc neovascularisation, the better the visual prognosis.
