EFFECTIVENESS OF LASER PHOTOCOAGULATION F OR DIABETIC MACULAR EDEMA

Background Diabetic macular edema is the most frequent cause of visual loss in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Laser photocoagulation of clinically significant macular edema is effective in reducing the ris k of visual loss. Methods and results Sixty three eyes of 42 diabetic patients with macular edema were included in a clinical study to deter mine the short-term visual outcome (9 months) of laser photocoagulatio n. The results suggest that laser photocoagulation is less effective i n diabetic patients with high blood pressure and in patients with low visual acuity at treatment time.