Single-session prophylactic pan-retinal photocoagulation in moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy in low-resource settings

Abstract

Purpose: To study patient's acceptability and safety of offering a prophylactic early single session of pan-retinal photocoagulation (PRP) for moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) in selected patients. Settings and Design: Mixed observational and interventional study. Patients and Methods: The observational study included 82 eyes of 68 patients presenting with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) or its complications and the interventional study included 48 eyes of 48 patients with moderate NPDR who were offered a single session PRP because they were unlikely to comply with the follow-up protocol and were at higher risk of diabetic retinopathy (DR) progression. Results: The observational study showed that nearly 51% of patients had no idea about the DR screening protocols, 47.5% of included eyes presented with vitreous hemorrhage, 30.5% with tractional retinal detachment, and 22% with retinal neovascularization. The interventional study showed that minor patients' complaints were reported such as night vision problems, flashes, and peripheral field defects. There was no significant change in the mean preoperative logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) over time throughout the study (P = 0.951). At the end of follow-up, 89.5% of included eyes showed no loss of any lines of their preoperative logMAR CDVA and 10.5% lost only one line. All eyes remained in the same stage of moderate NPDR with no signs of progression to severe or very severe NPDR or proliferative DR. Conclusion: Prophylactic early PRP is an acceptable, safe, and satisfactory procedure for patients with moderate NPDR in low-resource settings.