NAVILAS Laser System Focal Laser Treatment for Diabetic Macular Edema - One Year Results of a Case Series

PURPOSE: To report one year outcomes of focal Navigated Retina Laser Therapy (NAVILAS) for diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODS: Retrospective cohort series of 7 diabetic patients treated with NAVILAS focal laser. Statistical analysis included descriptive and continuous variables (Best-corrected logMAR Visual Acuity and time-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters) which were compared using a non-parametric procedure, the Friedman tests for repeated measures. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to denote statistical significance. RESULTS: diabetic patients (4 male; 3 female) with an average age of 60.8 years (range 48-85 years) were included. All treated eyes were phakic; patients had an average hemoglobin A1C of 9.1 (range 7.8-11.7) at baseline and 8.0 (range 7.4-8.4) at 12 months. Six of the 7 patients had intravitreal bevacizumab injections prior to focal laser treatment with 1 patient having had more than 1 prior injection (total 3). At 12 months, median logMAR improved from 0.695 (± interquartile range 0.574) to 0.477 (± 0.573, p <0.001). OCT median central foveal thickness decreased from 248 (± 112) to 220 µm (± 41, p <0.001); total macular volume decreased from 7.84 (± 0.8) to 7.44 mm3 (± 0.7, p = 0.117); and largest macular subfield thickness decreased from 354 (± 116) to 289 µm (± 42, p <0.001). All patients were treated without complications. CONCLUSIONS: Focal NAVILAS showed to be safe and effective in treating DME with improvement in visual acuity and macular edema on OCT over 12 months in this case series. In clinical practice, combined treatment with focal laser including NAVILAS and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor may provide long-term improvement in DME.