RETURNYonago Acta medica 1991;34:201-208
The Efficacy of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy with Sympathetic Blockade for Retinal Vein Occlusion
Minoru Endo, Yoshika Takahashi, Shiro Hatta, Machiko Inoue, Hiroshi Nakao, Shigeru Takagi, Kazunori Shimada, Masao Nagata, Nanae Kunito, Atsushi Uehira*, Masato Masutani* and Akihiko Tamai
Department of Ophthalmology, and *Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago 683, Japan
Eighteen patients (18 eyes) with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) were treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO; at 2 absolute atmospheric pressure for 1 h once a day) with cervicothoracic sympathetic blockade. After tympanotomy and sympathetic blockade, the subject patients underwent HBO. Following an average of 20.3 sessions of treatment, visual acuity improved by 2 lines or more on a vision chart in 9 of 18 eyes (50.0%) and macular edema, secondary to RVO, decreased in 13 of 16 eyes (81.2%). In another series of 18 patients (18 eyes) with RVO which served as controls, visual acuity improved in 3 of 18 eyes (16.7%) and macular edema decreased in 4 of 13 eyes (30.8%). The differences between the HBO-treated and HBO-untreated groups were significant (P < 0.05 for visual acuity and P < 0.01 for macular edema). The follow-up period averaged 219.2 days and 232.2 days in the respective series. Improvement in visual acuity was more pronounced in eyes with improvement of macular edema following HBO. The findings suggest the clinical usefulness of HBO with sympathetic blockade in the management of RVO.
Key words: hyperbaric oxygen therapy; macular edema; retinal vein occlusion; sympathetic blockade; visual acuity