MANAGEMENT OF RETINAL VEIN OCCLUSION IN AN AFRICAN POPULATION-ANALYTICAL COMPARATIVE RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Introduction: Introduction Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO) is a severe ophthalmic diseasecapable of causing blindness and morbidityif not properlymanaged.Interventional optionsinclude management of systemic and ocular risk factors with intravitreal anti-vascularendothelial growth factors (IVAVEGF), steroids (IS), gene therapy (GT), peptide-basedagents (PBA) and small molecule inhibitors (SMI).Aim: To assess visual prognosis, most common etiology and type of occlusion inlarge seriesofpatients after being diagnosed with RVO.Materials and Methods: Records of patients who had been managed for RVO werereviewed retrospectively for safety, complication, visual outcome and prognosis. Patients’demographic data, indications of treatment and length of follow up were collected andanalysed using Welch Two Sample t-test.Results: Eighty-four eyes of 80 patients (44 females and 36 males) were identified.Mean age at diagnosis was 57.19 +7 (range 30-70 years) with minimum follow up of 7years (range 7 – 10). Visual acuities improved in 74 (88.09%), worsened in 4 (4.76%)and remained unchanged in 6 (7.14%) eyes managed withIVAVEGF, observation andsteroids respectively. The most common etiologies were hypertension 42 (50%),glaucoma 16 (19.04%) and diabetes 10 (11.90%). Four Yeyes had complications themost common of whichwas neovascular glaucoma (NVG) 2 (50.00%). Seventy-four(88.09%) had non ischemic whilst 4 eyes (4.76%) had ischemic occlusions.Conclusion: Visual prognosis of RVO is generally good with IVAVEGF. IS are useful whenIVAVEGF fails in visual recovery. Novel treatment like GT, PBA and SMI are promising.Management of underlying systemic and ocular diseases and risk factors is equallyfundamental.