Efficacy and Safety of Laser Photocoagulation in Persistent Idiopathic Central Serous Chorioretinopathy: A Prospective Interventional Study

Introduction: Central Serous Chorioretinopathy (CSCR) encompasses the macular area, secondary to the accumulation of subretinal fluid and increased permeability from the choriocapillaris resulting in focal or diffuse dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium. Diagnosis of CSCR is done by several procedures like clinical examination, Amsler grid testing, fluorescein angiography, ocular coherence tomography. There are several treatment options including photodynamic therapy, laser photocoagulation, etc., for CSCR.

Aim: To study the efficacy and safety of laser photocoagulation in persistent idiopathic CSCR.

Materials and Methods: The present prospective interventional study was conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology, BJ Government Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India, from August 2019 to January 2021. A total of 30 patients (30 eyes) with idiopathic CSCR, persistent for duration of three months or more with worsening of visual symptoms, active leakage on Fundus Fluoresceine Angiography (FFA) were subjected to 532 nm subthreshold green laser photocoagulation treatment after routine investigations. Statistical analysis was done on International Business Machines (IBM) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0.

Results: In the present study, there was male preponderance (86.7%) for the CSCR cases. The mean±Standard Deviation (SD) age of in the study was 37.7±0.07 years. All the eyes studied had unilateral involvement with 53.35% right eye involvement and 46.7% left eye involvement. The duration of current episode of CSCR in months showed a mean+SD of 5.86±1.40. The distribution of visual acuity in affected eye (before laser treatment) depicts the mean prelaser Best Corrected Visual Acuity (BCVA) of 30 patients at baseline was (0.68±0.20) in LogMAR. About 67% patients experienced central scotoma and 33% patients had metamorphopsia on Amsler chart. Distribution of active leakage site on FFA showed that 43% cases had active leakage in superonasal quadrant, 30% had active leakage in superotemporal, 17% had active leak in inferonasal quadrant and 10% had active leak in inferotemporal quadrant. CSCR associated with or without Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) atrophy showed that 63.3% patients had RPE atrophy suggesting long-standing course of disease with NSD and subretinal fluid collection affecting RPE. Prelaser mean CMT on OCT of affected eye was 445.83±54.79 μm which was reduced to mean CMT of 303.57±48.49 μm at four weeks follow up, which further reduced to mean CMT of 224.9±20 μm at end of 12 weeks was statistically significant with p-value<0.001. The statistical analysis for the macular thickness at four weeks and 12 weeks showed significant probability with paired t-test with p-value<0.001.

Conclusion: It can be concluded from the present study that early treatment with laser photocoagulation is efficient in the restoration of vision within a period of 12 weeks.