Abstract
Purpose: :
Recent studies reported that surgical removal of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) resulted in the stabilization of visual acuity for long time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term surgical results of this technique.
Methods: :
We have studied 92 patients who underwent surgical removal of CNV at our institution between October 1997 and April 2005. Patients with the follow-up period more than 12 months were included. A single surgeon (YO) performed the surgery on all the patients. Fifty-eight patients were age-related macular degeneration (AMD), 26 were pathological myopia and 11 had other miscellaneous causes. The mean follow-up was 4.8±2.2 years ranging from 1 to 8.7 years.
Results: :
Visual acuity in the AMD group was improved in 35 eyes (60%), stabilized in 18 eyes (31%) and deteriorated in 5 eyes (9%). Pathological myopia cases showed visual improvement in 11 eyes (42%), stabilization in 14 eyes (54%) and deterioration in one eye (4%). At the final visit, the visual acuity was maintained or better than the pre-operative vision in 74 % of AMD and in 65 % of pathological myopia. Ten eyes (11 %) had recurrence of CNV during the follow-up. Eight eyes (8 %) developed complications such as rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (7%), vitreous hemorrhage (1%) and macular hole (1%).
Conclusions: :
Our data suggested that the surgical removal of CNV is effective to stabilize the vision in patients with AMD and pathological myopia. Patients with pathological myopia showed the visual deterioration during the long-term follow-up due to the enlargement of retinal pigment epithelium atrophy.
Keywords: choroid: neovascularization • age-related macular degeneration • vitreoretinal surgery