Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcome of Retinal Vein Occlusions in Ile Ife, Nigeria

Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the second most common retinal vascular disease. This study aims to determine its clinical presentations, complications and treatment outcome in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.

The medical records of consecutive patients with RVO who presented to the vitreoretinal clinic of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife over a 5-year period were retrieved. Patients' demographic data, presenting visual acuity, retina examination (Volks +78D) findings, complications, treatment offered or given as well as the treatment outcome were extracted and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 (IBM SPSS, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA) for Windows (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA).

Sixty-eight eyes of 63 patients had RVO giving a prevalence of 6.3%. Mean age was 65.5±8.0years, 38 (60.3%) were males and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) was the most common 46 (67.6%) type. Vision-threatening complication was present in 25(36.8%) eyes with macula oedema being the most common (76.0%). Twenty-three (36.5%) patients were scheduled for intravitreal pharmacotherapy and 2 referred for retina photocoagulation in another hospital. Sixteen eyes received intravitreal injections with 8 (50.0%) having improvement in vision, 3 (18.8%) had no change in visual acuity while 3 (18.8%) had their visual acuity reduced from baseline post injection. Two (12.4%) defaulted from follow up after the first dose of injection.

Retinal vein occlusion is not of rare incidence with CRVO being the commonest type. Intravitreal pharmacotherapy plays a significant role in the treatment of vision loss from vision threatening complications.