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Visual prognosis of Coats' disease
A S Budning1, E Heon, B L Gallie
1Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Purpose:
Our purpose was to determine the visual prognosis of retinal telangiectasia (Coats' disease).
Methods:
We performed a retrospective review of 35 patients with Coats' disease seen at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada between 1987 and 1996. Ten patients were excluded because of incomplete records. Treatment modalities consisted of no treatment, cryotherapy with and without 532 nm laser through the indirect ophthalmoscope, and enucleation. Visual outcome was determined where possible.
Results:
Median follow-up was 4.5 years. Deterioration in visual acuity was associated with the presence of greater than 5 clock hours of involved retina and retinal detachment at diagnosis. Final visual acuity did not correlate with age of onset of disease. No eye treated with cryotherapy progressed to retinal detachment.
Conclusions:
Aggressive treatment of Coats' disease with cryotherapy with or without 532 nm laser, before retinal detachment, is likely to stabilize vision and decrease the risk of future total retinal detachment.