Photodynamic therapy with double duration for circumscribed choroidal haemangioma: functional and anatomical results based on initial parameters

ImportancePre-treatment symptoms longer than 12months and foveal cystoid changes are indicators for poor anatomical and functional outcome after photodynamic therapy (PDT). BackgroundTo evaluate the prognostic factors on the effectiveness of PDT with double duration for treatment of exudative circumscribed choroidal haemangioma. DesignRetrospective study. ParticipantsTwenty-seven patients with symptomatic exudative circumscribed choroidal haemangioma treated with PDT. MethodsClinical charts of patients with exudative circumscribed choroidal haemangioma treated with PDT were analysed with regard to visual acuity, duration of symptoms, subfoveal fluid, foveal cystoid changes and foveal thickness in optical coherence tomography. Main Outcome MeasuresChange of best-corrected visual acuity, sub- and intrafoveal fluid and foveal thickness measured with optical coherence tomography from baseline to last follow-up. ResultsMean visual acuity improved by 0.05 from 0.42 logMAR (standard deviation [SD] 0.34) to 0.37 logMAR (SD 0.47). In 70% of the patients, PDT stopped exudation and revealed a dry fovea. The recurrence or persistence of sub- or intrafoveal fluid was significantly associated with pre-therapeutic symptoms existing for more than 12months (P=0.046). Mean foveal thickness in optical coherence tomography decreased from 324m (SD 223m) to 209m (SD 109m). Conclusions and RelevancePDT proved to be a safe and effective treatment procedure for exudative circumscribed choroidal haemangioma in our series, with few side effects. We observed a more successful treatment with regard to anatomical and functional results in cases with pre-existing symptoms less than 12months and in cases without pre-therapeutic foveal cystoid changes.