Purpose:
To review the effect of green diode laser retinal ablation therapyin patients with advanced Coats disease.
Methods:
Medical records, Retcam photographs and fluorescein angiogramsof 14 eyes of 13 patients with advanced Coats disease were reviewedas part of this retrospective, interventional case series. Allpatients were initially treated with green diode laser (532nm) ablation therapy to areas of the retinal telangiectasisassociated with exudation.
Results:
Fourteen eyes of 13 patients with Coats disease were included.Before treatment, 1 eye was at stage 2 (telangiectasis and exudation),12 eyes at stage 3 (exudative retinal detachment), and 1 eyeat stage 4 (total retinal detachment with glaucoma). Five eyeshad highly detached retina of > 4 mm. Median age at diagnosiswas 51 months (range, 0.5 to 153 months). Median follow-up was34.5 months (range, 15 to 70 months). Median number of greendiode laser photocoagulation treatments was 2 (range, 1 to 5).After laser photocoagulation, 13 of 14 eyes (93%) had no activeexudation. Functionally, 4 of 14 eyes (29%) were 20/50 or better,3 of 14 eyes (21%) were 20/60 to 20/200, 4 of 14 eyes (29%)were 20/400 to light perception, and 2 of 14 eyes (14%) wereno light perception. No eyes were phthisical or enucleated.
Conclusions:
Green diode laser therapy can be an effective treatment foradvanced Coats disease, even in the presence of moderate toseverely elevated retinal detachment.
Keywords: retina • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques • laser