Quality of life in patients with retinitis pigmentosa undergoing treatment with intravitreal bone marrow-derived stem cells (Reticell -clinical trial)

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the vision-related quality of life in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) undergoing treatment with intravitreal use of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cells .

Methods: The study included 20 patients with RP undergoing treatment with intravitreal autologous bone marrow-derived stem cells . We evaluate the vision-related quality of life (VRQOL) of patients using the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25). Patients were scheduled to answer the questionnaire before treatment and 3 and 12 months after treatment.

Results: All patients completed the survey as scheduled.<br /> There was a statistically significant improvement (p <0.05) in the quality of life of patients 3 months after treatment, whereas by the 12th month there was no statistically significant difference from baseline.

Conclusions: Cell therapy with intravitreal use of bone marrow-derived stem cells can improve the quality of life of patients with RP, although the improvement is lost with time. A larger number of cases will be necessary to evaluate the repercussions of this therapy on the quality of life of these patients.