Matched pairs analysis of retinal navigated laser versus conventional laser

Purpose To compare clinical outcome and retreatment rate of a novel computer navigated laser versus conventional slit-lamp-microscope laser treatment of diabetic macular edema Methods Focal laser for diabetic macular edema (DME) in 46 consecutive patients was digitally planned on fundus images and performed utilizing retinal navigation (Navilas® Laser System, OD-OS GmbH, Teltow / Berlin, Germany). We investigated the number of retreat-ments and monitored visual acuity (VA) over 6 months and compared to 119 patients treated with a conventional laser via a slit-lamp-microscope.To match control group and Navilas pa-tients propensity score matching was performed with STATA based on the nearest neighbour method. Results The propensity score algorithm for age, gender, baseline VA and number of laser spots yielded 28 patients for the matched control group. All baseline characteristics were comparable, VA was 0.48 +/-0.37 Log MAR for Navilas and 0.43 +/-0.36 Log MAR for conventional laser. Visual outcome at 3 and 6 months follow-up was better for the Navilas group, but did not reach statistical significance. The Laser retreatment rate using Kaplan-Meier analysis showed separation of the survival curves after 2 months. For the first 6 months the cumulative retreatment rate was 18% in the Navilas and 31% in the conventional laser group (p=0.02) Conclusion Lower retreatment rates were observed with navigated laser treatment compared to conventional laser within 6 months after treatment, indicating a more sustained effect and faster stabilization using navigated laser, hence, reducing the treatment burden for the patient. Commercial interest