Abstract
Purpose :
It was hypothesized that stress from COVID-19 would have a negative effect on Central Serous Retinopathy (CSR), a stress associated condition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of stress from COVID-19 on chronic CSR using a retrospective chart review.
Methods :
Charts from 45 patients, 67 eyes, with chronic CSR were evaluated. Data were collected pre COVID-19 shutdown (January 1, 2019 to March 15, 2020) and during COVID-19 shutdown (March 15, 2020 to September 1, 2020) for visual acuity, central subfield thickness (CST), pigment epithelial detachment (PED), and subretinal fluid. Clinical change (improved, stable, or worsened) status was determined by the treating retinal specialist. The data were determined to not be normally distributed via the Shapiro-Wilk test. Statistical significance of the CST and vision data was determined by the sign test. The McNemar Exact test was used to determine statistical significance of PED and subretinal fluid.
Results :
Differences in data in pre vs post COVID-19 shutdown were not statistically significant. Clinically, 69% of patients were stable, 14% improved, and 17% worsened. Visual acuity pre COVID-19 shutdown averaged 20/37 (SD 20/46) and during the COVID-19 shutdown averaged 20/37 (SD 20/43); these changes were not statistically significant. CST pre COVID-19 shutdown averaged 281 µm (SD 57 µm) and during the COVID-19 shutdown averaged 288 µm (SD 83 µm); these changes were also not statistically significant. The majority of patients did not change in their presence or absence of PED (94%) or subretinal fluid (85%).
Conclusions :
Patients with chronic CSR did not see significant changes to their clinical status, vision, CST, subretinal fluid, or PED when assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stress from onset of the COVID-19 did not appear to have a significant effect on patients with chronic CSR.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.