ABSTRACT

To retrospectively analyze the impacts of treatment regimens on progression and prognosis of diabetic retinopathy and visual acuity in Trakya University Hospital.

This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted with patients who were diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy in the Ophthalmology Department of Trakya University Hospital between January 2006 and January 2020.

Initially, 798 eyes from 399 patients diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy met the inclusion criteria. Non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy was present on 202 (50.6%) patients, and 197 (49.4%) patients had proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Twenty-five patients (6.2%) had proliferative diabetic retinopathy progression. Patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy progression had no difference in terms of cataract surgery, gender, and hypertension existence than the ones who did not experience proliferative diabetic retinopathy progression. There was no relation between stability, increase or decrease of visual acuity, the type of diabetes, retinal laser photocoagulation treatment, and the type of intravitreal injection.

Our study showed that retinal laser photocoagulation treatment and cataract surgery had no significant impact on visual acuity prognosis, unlike the initial examination visual acuity values. Additionally, it was also shown that the different types of intravitreal injections made no dissimilar results on visual acuities. In addition, in our study, it was revealed that gender, presence of hypertension, and cataract surgery may not have a significant relation with proliferative diabetic retinopathy progression. Further studies are needed to thoroughly reveal the relation between the treatment regimens, progression, and prognosis of the disease.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy, epidemiology, macular edema