gms | German Medical Science

24th Annual Meeting of the German Retina Society

German Retina Society

17.06. - 18.06.2011, Aachen

Hyperbaric oxygenation to treat central retinal artery obstruction

Meeting Abstract

  • Johannes Menzel-Severing - Universitäts-Augenklinik der RWTH Aachen
  • U. Siekmann - Klinik für Anaesthesiologie der RWTH Aachen
  • P. Walter - Universitäts-Augenklinik der RWTH Aachen
  • B. Mazinani - Universitäts-Augenklinik der RWTH Aachen

German Retina Society. 24th Annual Conference of the German Retina Society. Aachen, 17.-18.06.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11rg48

doi: 10.3205/11rg48, urn:nbn:de:0183-11rg484

This is the English version of the article.
The German version can be found at: http://www.egms.de/de/meetings/rg2011/11rg48.shtml

Published: June 15, 2011

© 2011 Menzel-Severing et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

No treatment is currently available to prevent lasting visual loss from retinal artery obstruction. Under hyperbaric conditions the amount of oxygen dissolved in serum can be increased substantially, also augmenting the provision of oxygen to the retina. This constitutes the rationale behind the putative usefulness of hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) in acute central retinal artery obstruction (CRAO). Here, we compare the outcome of HBOT in CRAO-patients to that of controls. Records of all patients diagnosed with CRAO at the RWTH Aachen University were reviewed. HBOT and hemodilution therapy had been administrated routinely. If systemic contra-indications impeded HBOT or if HBOT was unavailable, patients were hemodiluted only; this group was regarded as controls. Patients were included if seen within 12 hours of onset and if visual acuity (VA) was ≤1/40. Among exclusion criteria figured cilioretinal vessels or arteritic occlusion. The HBOT-group comprised 51 patients; 29 patients entered the control group. Mean baseline VA was counting fingers in HBOT-patients and 1/50 in controls (p=0.1). Most other potential confounders (e.g. duration of symptoms) also did not significantly differ at baseline. Upon discharge, VA had improved by a mean of three lines in HBOT-patients (p<0.0001) and one line in controls (p=0.23). We recorded improvement of VA following HBOT, but measured no significant improvement following standard treatment. A randomized, controlled trial would be desirable to confirm these results. A high number of non-responders reinforces the notion that improved understanding of metabolic insults to the retina other that those related to hypoxia is required.