The study was done to evaluate the long-term functional and morphological changes occurring in myopic eyes with a DSM, with or without untreated SRD.
This prospective, single-centre study enrolled consecutive cases of highly myopic patients with DSM with or without a SRD. Patients underwent complete ophthalmological examinations, optical coherence tomography, axial length measurements and autofluorescence. Follow-up visits were performed with a maximum interval of 6 months for 4 years.
Twenty-six eyes from 18 patients (mean age 61.2) were included. At baseline, 13 eyes had SRD and 13 did not. The DSMs were either horizontal (69%) or round (31%). There were no significant differences in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) between eyes with and without SRD during the 48-month follow-up period. Multivariate analysis showed that baseline BCVA was the only parameter among those analysed (age and SRD height) to have a significant effect on the final BCVA (p<0.0001). SRD fluctuated overtime and SRD height was significantly influenced by choroidal thickness (p=0.002). The scleral bulge thickness had no effect on SRD thickness.
The study concluded that BCVA remained clinically stable over 4 years without treatment despite the fluctuations and persistence of the SRDs.
Reference: https://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2020/09/05/bjophthalmol-2020-316629
