Low-dose transpupillary thermotherapy for retinal-pigment epithelial detachment in Asian eyes

Objective This study investigated the efficacy of low-dose transpupillary thermotherapy in Asian eyes diagnosed with subfoveal retinal-pigment epithelial detachment. Methods Records of seven patients from different medical institutions were included in this nonrandomized retrospective series. All patients were diagnosed to have unilateral retinal-pigment epithelial detachment and underwent treatment with transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) between January 2002 and January 2003. Minimum follow-up was 6 months. Results Average change in visual acuity at 1 month post-TTT revealed less than 1 (0.86) line of improvement, which increased to 1.28 lines on the third month and leveled at .42 lines on the sixth month. Overall improvement of these 7 patients at 6 months of follow-up was 2.56 lines. The average reduction in the size of the lesion was 41.54%. Total average reduction in the size of the lesion between retreatment and when lesion was deemed clinically stable was 55.67%. Conclusion Low-dose transpupillary thermotherapy may be a viable treatment modality for subfoveal pigment epithelial detachments based on the improvement of visual acuity, reduction in the size of lesion, and absence of complications at 6 months of follow-up.