Intraoperative OCT-assisted Surgery for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy in the DISCOVER Study

To delineate the feasibility and role of intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT) in surgical decision-making during vitreoretinal surgical interventions for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).

Prospective, single-site, multi-surgeon consecutive case series.

Patients enrolled in the DISCOVER study who underwent vitreoretinal surgery for sequelae of PDR.

Subjects were identified from the first 2 years of the DISCOVER study that underwent vitreoretinal surgery for complications of PDR. Intraoperative imaging with a microscope-integrated iOCT system was performed at surgical milestones as determined by the surgeon. Data collected included clinical characteristics, image features, and survey-based surgeon feedback.

Main outcomes were 1) the percentage of cases with successful acquisition of iOCT (feasibility) and 2) the percentage of cases in which iOCT altered surgical decision-making (utility).

Eighty-one eyes with PDR underwent vitreoretinal surgery in the DISCOVER study. Successful iOCT imaging was obtained for 80 of 81 eyes (98.8%). Of these, 36 (44.4%) were female and 44 (54.3%) were male. The surgeon preferred real-time feedback in 47 cases (58.6%), static review in 29 cases (36.3%), and was indeterminate in 4 cases (5%). Surgeons reported that in 2 cases (2.5%) the iOCT interfered with the surgery (e.g., microscope malfunction). In 41 of the 81 cases (50.6%), surgeons reported that iOCT provided valuable information (e.g., identification of dissection planes, identification of retinal hole). In addition, the iOCT data provided information that specifically altered the surgeon's decision making (e.g., determination of peel completion, choice of tamponade) in 21 of 81 cases (26%). No adverse events were attributed to the iOCT system.

The results suggest that iOCT is feasible during complex vitreoretinal surgeries in patients with PDR using a microscope-integrated OCT platform. Utilizing intraoperative OCT, appears to frequently offer key information that may impact surgical decision-making and potentially patient outcomes.