Purpose
To report the results of focal navigated laser (Navilas; OD-OS, Berlin, Germany) alone in the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) at 12 months
Methods
The medical records of all eyes treated with Navilas focal laser in a single practice were retrospectively reviewed. Eighteen eyes, all with a diagnosis of DME, were included in this analysis. None of the eyes had received intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections before or after laser treatment. Demographics, visual acuity, central subfield thickness (CST), macular volume and subsequent laser treatments were recorded at baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months post laser treatment.
Results
Eighteen eyes of 12 patients (7 females, 5 males) with an average age of 64 years old were analyzed. The mean visual acuity (VA) at time of Navilas laser (baseline) was LogMAR 0.254 (20/35 Snellen equivalent), with average CST and macular volume of 327 mm and 8.97 mm3, respectively. At 12 months post-laser, the mean VA was LogMAR 0.205 (20/32 Snellen equivalent; p=0.06), mean CST 318 mm (p=0.20) and mean macular volume 8.89 mm3 (p=0.15). Five out of the 18 eyes underwent one repeat Navilas focal laser treatment during the study period.
Conclusions
Navilas focal laser showed a strong trend towards improvement in visual acuity at 12 months but did not reach statistical significance. This may be because the mean visual acuity at baseline was very good (20/35). There was also a trend towards decreased macular thickness and volume at 12 months, however this was not statistically significant. A main limitation of our study was the small sample size. Further study would be enhanced by prospective comparison between traditional focal laser versus Navilas focal laser alone for the treatment of DME. There were no complications associated with use of the focal laser.