Minimally invasive laser treatment combined with intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor for diabetic macular oedema

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the combination of minimally invasive laser treatment to the intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for diabetic macular oedema (DME). This study was retrospective longitudinal study of thirty-four eyes of 31 patients with DME. Either once or several times of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection was followed by the single minimally invasive laser within a month. The mean best corrected visual acuity (VA) and the central macular thickness (CMT) were measured before treatment, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after the first anti-VEGF injection. The mean logMAR VA had improved from 0.52 ± 0.34 at baseline to 0.44 ± 0.32 (p = 0.003), 0.40 ± 0.34 (p = 0.006), 0.43 ± 0.33 (p = 0.063), and 0.41 ± 0.34 (p = 0.009), at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment, respectively. The mean CMT decreased significantly by 1 month and maintained over 12 months (491.1 ± 133.9 µm at baseline, 396.6 ± 116.8 µm (p = 0.001), 385.2 ± 156.2 µm (p = 0.002), 336.5 ± 86.3 µm (p = 0.000), and 354.8 ± 120.4 µm (p = 0.000) at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively). The average number of the anti-VEGF injection in 1 year was 3.6 ± 2.1 in all patients. The combined intravitreal anti-VEGF and minimally invasive laser therapy improves the VA, alleviates DME, and may decrease the required number of anti-VEGF injections.