Laser Treatment in Patients with Bilateral Large Drusen
Abstract
Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of low-intensity laser treatment in the prevention of visual acuity (VA) loss among participants with bilateral large drusen.Design Multicenter randomized clinical trial. One eye of each participant was assigned to treatment, and the contralateral eye was assigned to observation.Participants A total of 1052 participants who had > or =10 large (>125 microm) drusen and VA> or =20/40 in each eye enrolled through 22 clinical centers.Intervention The initial laser treatment protocol specified 60 barely visible burns applied in a grid pattern within an annulus between 1500 and 2500 mum from the foveal center. At 12 months, eyes assigned to treatment that had sufficient drusen remaining were retreated with 30 burns by targeting drusen within an annulus between 1000 and 2000 mum from the foveal center.Main outcome measure Proportion of eyes at 5 years with loss of > or =3 lines of VA from baseline. Secondary outcome measures included the development of choroidal neovascularization or geographic atrophy (GA), change in contrast threshold, change in critical print size, and incidence of ocular adverse events.Results At 5 years, 188 (20.5%) treated eyes and 188 (20.5%) observed eyes had VA scores > or = 3 lines worse than at the initial visit (P = 1.00). Cumulative 5-year incidence rates for treated and observed eyes were 13.3% and 13.3% (P = 0.95) for choroidal neovascularization and 7.4% and 7.8% (P = 0.64) for GA, respectively. The contrast threshold doubled in 23.9% of treated eyes and in 20.5% of observed eyes (P = 0.40). The critical print size doubled in 29.6% of treated eyes and in 28.4% of observed eyes (P = 0.70). Seven treated eyes and 14 observed eyes had an adverse event of a > or =6-line loss in VA in the absence of late age-related macular degeneration or cataract.Conclusion As applied in the Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial, low-intensity laser treatment did not demonstrate a clinically significant benefit for vision in eyes of people with bilateral large drusen.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial showed that although drusen disappeared with laser photocoagulation, there was no reduction in the risk for the development of advanced age-related macular degeneration.
“The Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial, a controlled clinical trial that assessed the role of laser photocoagulation for the treatment of individuals with large drusen, showed that although drusen disappeared with treatment, there was no reduction in the risk for the development of advanced age-related macular degeneration.156”
From Age-related macular degeneration (2008) · cites this paper as [156]
At 5 years in the Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial, about 20% of both the treated and untreated group experienced vision loss; 15% in each group developed neovascular age-related macular degeneration and about 7% developed geographic atrophy.
“At 5 years, about 20% of both the treated and untreated group experienced vision loss; 15% in each group developed neovascular age-related macular degeneration and about 7% developed geographic atrophy.”
From Age-related macular degeneration (2008) · cites this paper as [156]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 42 · Cited by 71
- Authors
- ⁎
- Corresponding author
- ⁎
- Venue
- Ophthalmology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-11
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1974-1986
- ISSN
- 0161-6420 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4236738929
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 4.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Ophthalmology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (EY012261, EY012211, EY012279)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Retinal Diseases and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Retinal and Macular Surgery
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Ophthalmology › Ocular and Laser Science Research
- Keywords
- drusen, age-related macular degeneration, visual acuity loss, choroidal neovascularization, geographic atrophy, contrast threshold, critical print size, laser treatment safety, adverse events, retinal pigment epithelium damage
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Lasers, Macular Degeneration, Male, Reading, Time Factors, Vision Disorders, Visual Acuity, Contrast Sensitivity, Retinal Drusen, Incidence, Treatment Failure, Disease Progression, Choroidal Neovascularization, Laser Therapy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
