Beiran I, Goldenberg I, Adir Y, Tamir A, Shupak A, Miller B, et al.
European journal of ophthalmology. Date of publication 2001 Oct 1;volume 11(4):345-50.
1. Eur J Ophthalmol. 2001 Oct-Dec;11(4):345-50.
Early hyperbaric oxygen therapy for retinal artery occlusion.
Beiran I(1), Goldenberg I, Adir Y, Tamir A, Shupak A, Miller B.
Author information:
(1)Department of Ophthalmology, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
ibeiran@hotmail.com
PURPOSE: To assess whether early hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) treatment has a
beneficial effect on visual results after retinal artery occlusion (RAO).
METHODS: A comparative retrospective study in which medical records of all
HBO-treated RAO patients in our department were reviewed and compared with
matched RAO patients not treated by HBO (from a different medical center). Mean
visual acuity (VA) at completion of treatment, the presence or absence of
improvement in VA between admission and discharge, and the mean change in VA
between admission and discharge were noted. All patients treated by HBO had
treatment no later than 8 hours after the beginning of visual symptoms.
RESULTS: Mean VA at discharge was 0.2981 (6/20) in the treated group and 0.1308
(6/46) in the control group (p < 0.03). In the treated group, 82.9% had an
improvement in VA between admission and discharge, compared with 29.7% of the
control group (p < 0.00001). Mean improvement in VA was 0.1957 in the treated
group and 0.0457 in the control group (p < 0.01). Differences in outcome measures
between treatment and control groups were found to reflect the difference between
treated and untreated hypertensive patients. No difference was found between
treated and untreated non-hypertensive patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Early HBO therapy appears to have a beneficial effect on visual
outcome in patients with RAO. Further large-scale prospective controlled studies
are needed to confirm this.
PMID: 11820305 [Indexed for MEDLINE]