New Approaches to Surgical Treatment of Patients with Advanced Stage of Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Purpose. Development and evaluation of the clinical effectiveness and safety of a vitrectomy (VE) technique for patients with advanced stage proliferative diabetic retinopathy (ASPDR).Materials and methods. We observed 132 patients (mean age 62.8 ± 2.4 years) with the following criteria for inclusion in the study, corresponding to the classification criteria of ASPDR: it is impossible to estimate the area of neovascularization; the fundus of the eye is partially ophthalmoscoped or not ophthalmoscoped in the posterior pole; preretinal or vitreal hemorrhage in the posterior pole with an area of more than 4 optic discs; retinoschisis in the macular zone. All patients were divided into the following two groups, equal in age, gender and visual status of the “healthy” eye: the main group (MG, 69 patients, 69 eyes), who underwent VE was performed according to the developed method and a control group (CG, 63 patients, 63 eyes), in which VE was performed according to the traditional method.Results. The incidence of intraoperative complications in patients in the MG (5.8 %) was 8.1 % (p < 0.05) lower than in the CG (13.9 %). The incidence of postoperative complications in patients from the MG (5.5 ± 0.5 %) was 4.2 % (p < 0.01) lower than in the CG (9.7 ± 1.0 %). The increase in best-corrected visual acuity after surgery in patients from the MG was significantly (by 0.13 rel. units, p < 0.001) higher than in the CG. The value of the average decrease in the developed qualitative criteria for the condition of the fundus in patients in the MG (1.6 ± 0.1) was 23.1 % (p < 0.05), higher than in the CG (1.3 ± 0.1).Conclusion. Surgical treatment of patients with ASPDR using the developed technique provides (compared to the traditional approach) a higher level of safety and clinical effectiveness. The main advantage of the developed technique is an integrated approach to surgical intervention, including the improvement of ophthalmological “techniques” (use of one-stage combined surgery, endolaser coagulation technology, etc.) and drug support (administration of ranibizumab at a dose of 0.05 mg 3–5 days before surgery) and the choice of intravenous sedation as the optimal anesthetic aid.