Menu
Back to Journals » Clinical Ophthalmology » Volume 6
Pain and accuracy of focal laser treatment for diabetic macular edema using a retinal navigated laser (Navilas®)
Authors Kernt M , Cheuteu, Cserhati, Seidensticker F, Liegl, Lang, Haritoglou C, Kampik A, Ulbig M, Neubauer A
Received 2 November 2011
Accepted for publication 4 January 2012
Published 27 February 2012 Volume 2012:6 Pages 289—296
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S27859
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 5
Marcus Kernt*, Raoul E Cheuteu*, Sarah Cserhati, Florian Seidensticker, Raffael G Liegl, Julian Lang, Christos Haritoglou, Anselm Kampik, Michael W Ulbig, Aljoscha S Neubauer
Department of Ophthalmology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
*These authors contributed equally to this study
Aim: To investigate treatment-related pain and the accuracy of navigated laser photocoagulation in the treatment of clinically significant macular edema.
Methods: Focal laser treatment of diabetic macular edema in 54 consecutive patients was digitally planned on fundus images and performed using the navigated laser photocoagulation system Navilas® (OD-OS GmbH, Teltow, Germany). Treatment-related pain was quantified on a visual analog scale directly after treatment and compared with a matched control group who received conventional laser treatment (n = 46). In addition, for Navilas-treated patients, the accuracy of spot placement on color images was analyzed 1 month after treatment.
Results: In total, 5423 laser spots (mean 100 per eye) were analyzed. With navigated treatment, 90% of laser spots were visible on color images, of which 96% were within 100 µm from the target. Eighty percent of the laser spots were placed and visible within the 100 µm target on an intention-to-treat basis for color imaging. Optical coherence topography confirmed that laser effects were limited to the outer retina. Treatment-related pain following navigated laser photocoagulation was significantly lower than that of conventional laser treatment (1.6 vs 4.4 on a visual analog scale, P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Navigated laser effects could be visualized to a high percentage on post-treatment color images, and their location showed a high concordance to targeted areas. Patients reported that treatment-related pain following Navilas laser photocoagulation was significantly lower than pain following conventional laser treatment.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy, navigated laser therapy, pattern laser, diabetes
© 2012 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.
By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.