Risk and Prevention of Retinal Detachments in Patients with Stickler Syndrome

To report the impact of prophylactic laser retinopexy in the prevention of retinal detachments (RDs) in patients with Stickler syndrome.

This was a retrospective, comparative case series of patients with Stickler syndrome from the year 2000 to 2019. We compared the rate of RDs between individuals who did and did not receive prophylactic laser therapy. In patients with an RD, we compared the rate of RD in the fellow eye with and without prophylactic laser treatment.

A total of 95 eyes were identified. Fifty-four percent of the overall population was female. The RD rate was 26.7% among eyes without previous prophylactic laser retinopexy and 4.6% among eyes with previous prophylactic laser retinopexy. A Cox proportional model revealed that laser prophylaxis treatment had a statistically significant effect on the risk of RD or retinal tear during the 25-year survival period from birth (P = .034). Eyes receiving treatment were 70% less likely to experience RD or retinal tear (hazard ratio, 0.297; 95% CI, 0.097 to 0.913).

This study's results suggest a potential role for prophylactic laser retinopexy in the prevention of rhegmatogenous RD among patients with a clinical diagnosis of Stickler syndrome. [.