Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common childhood malignant intraocular tumor. Although enucleation and external beam radiotherapy have been historically used, today the most commonly used eye-sparing approach is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can be used in both intraocular and extraocular RB cases. Chemotherapeutic agents may be applied in different ways, including systemic, subconjunctival, intra-arterial and intravitreal routes. The main purposes of application of systemic therapy are to reduce the tumor size for local treatment (chemoreduction), or to reduce the risk of metastasis after enucleation surgery (adjuvant therapy). Intra-arterial chemotherapy with the current name “super-selective intra-arterial infusion therapy” could be applied as primary therapy in tumors confined to the retina or as a secondary method in tumor recurrence. The most important advantage of intra-arterial therapy is the prevention of systemic chemotherapy complications. Intravitreal chemotherapy is administered in the presence of persistent or recurrent vitreous seeding. The term “extraocular RB” includes orbital invasion and metastatic disease. Current treatment for orbital invasion is neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgical enucleation and adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy after surgery. In metastatic disease, regional lymph node involvement, distant metastases, and/or central nervous system (CNS) involvement may occur. Among them, CNS involvement has the worst prognosis, remaining at almost 100% mortality. In metastatic disease, high-dose salvage chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell rescue therapy are the possible treatment options; radiotherapy could also be added to the protocol according to the side of involvement.
Purpose. To compare the efficacy and safety of subthreshold micropulse yellow wavelength laser (SMYL) and low-fluence photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Methods. Thirty-three eyes of 30 patients with chronic CSC received either PDT (18 eyes) or SMYL (15 eyes) therapy. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), subretinal fluid (SRF) height, and central macular thickness (CMT) were evaluated at the baseline visit and one, three, six, nine, and 12 months after the therapy. Results. After 12 months, mean BCVA improved from 67.3 ± 14.2 to 71.5 ± 21.4 ETDRS letters in SMYL group and from 60.7 ± 16.3 to 64.4 ± 24.9 ETDRS letters in PDT group (p = 0.285 and p = 0.440, resp.). Mean CMT decreased from 242.8 ± 80 μm to 156.9 ± 60 μm in the PDT group and from 287.3 ± 126 μm to 138.0 ± 40 μm in the SMYL group (p = 0.098 and p = 0.003, resp.). SRF resolved completely in 72.2% and 80.0% of the eyes in the PDT and SMYL groups, respectively. Mean SRF height decreased from 117.2 ± 58 μm to 31.3 ± 56 μm in the PDT group and from 130.0 ± 104 μm to 12.5 ± 21 μm in the SMYL group (p = 0.031 and p = 0.014, resp.). Conclusions. Subthreshold micropulse yellow wavelength laser seems to be effective in the treatment of chronic CSC without any side effect and results in the resorption of SRF without causing visible retinal scarring.
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