Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Strini, S.
GLAS
Grazer LAser Studie
[ Diplomarbeit ] Medical University of Graz; 2012. pp. 52
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Maier Richard
- Wedrich Andreas
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- INTRODUCTION: Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus as well as the leading cause of blindness in the working age population in the developed world. The standard therapy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy is panretinal laser photocoagulation. It is an effective treatment for reducing the severe vision loss for patients with proliferative diabetic. The subsequent study was performed to compare pain perception following panretinal photocoagulation, using a conventional laser versus treatment with a PASCAL (pattern scan laser) laser. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 20 eyes of 20 patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and no history of previous laser treatments underwent panretinal photocoagulation. Patients were randomly allocated in two groups. All patients in group 1 received the treatment with conventional laser settings at first; patients in group 2 first received the treatment with PASCAL laser. Four laser sessions were performed on the threated eye in all patients at weekly interval. Pain perception was evaluated five minutes after each laser session, using the Scott¿s visual analogue scale (VAS). Stopwatch was used to measure the length of each session. RESULTS: At the time of the treatment, the mean age of patients was 65.61 with a range of 47 to 88 years. The duration of diabetes ranged between 3 and 40 years, averaging 17.04 years. The mean VAS level reported after the PRP sessions with the PASCAL laser was significantly lower (2.31 cm), compared to the standard laser (4.85 cm, p < 0.001). The PASCAL laser required an average of 3.08 minutes per session of the PRP, which was significantly less than the conventional laser that took an average of 4.65 minutes per session (p = 0.001, t-test for paired samples). CONCLUSION: Panretinal laser photocoagulation performed with the PASCAL laser is significantly less painful and takes considerably less time, compared to the treatment with the conventional laser.