Introduction

Transcription of the article from Springer Healthcare Limited published on June 16, 2019.

A study was conducted regarding the effectiveness of retinal electromagnetic stimulation and platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of deep retinal capillary ischemia.

Methods

The study included 28 eyes from 17 patients aged 15 to 76 years (mean age of 37.9 years) who had deep retinal capillary ischemia. Patients with an acute-onset paracentral scotoma in the last month were enrolled between January 2018 and January 2019. The diagnosis was based on clinical history and typical findings from optical coherence tomography angiography.

Subjects were divided into three groups

• Group 1 (n = 7 eyes) received electromagnetic stimulation alone.
• Group 2 (n = 7 eyes) received electromagnetic stimulation and an injection of autologous platelet-rich sub-tenon plasma.
• Group 3 had no intervention and served as a control group (n = 14 eyes).

Patients underwent ten sessions of electromagnetic stimulation in Groups 1 and 2. An injection of autologous platelet-rich sub-tenon plasma was performed after the first, fifth, and tenth sessions in Group 2. Changes were assessed before and after treatment during the first month.

Results

Average deep retinal capillary density was 52.0% before and 56.1% after ten sessions in Group 1 (p = 0.01). In the combined treatment group, density was 46.9% before and 56.5% after treatment (p = 0.01). Statistically significant improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (p = 0.01) was only achieved in Group 2. Combined treatment was significantly superior (p Group 3), there was no statistically significant change (p = 0.09).

Conclusions

Addressing the underlying cause is a priority in the treatment of deep retinal capillary ischemia. In mild cases, electromagnetic stimulation alone may have a beneficial effect. In more severe cases, sub-tenon PRP injection combined with electromagnetic stimulation may be more effective in enhancing the local therapeutic response.