A prospective, randomised, multicenter trial for surgical treatment of central retinal vein occlusion: results of the Radial Optic Neurotomy for Central Vein Occlusion (ROVO) study group.

BACKGROUND: To compare the surgical outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness of two treatments for central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), radial optic neurotomy (RON) and intravitreal triamcinolone (IVT), in comparison to natural history.

METHODS: A prospective, placebo-controlled, randomised and multi-center study. Patients with CRVO were treated in three groups - with either RON, a single intravitreal injection of 4 mg triamcinolone acetonide, or a placebo treatment. The main outcome measures were change of VA (visual acuity) and proportion of eyes with a significant improvement (defined as > 3 lines logMAR scale) of VA from baseline to month 12.

RESULTS: Ninety patients were included. Due to insufficient data, seven were excluded. Forty-seven percent (n = 18) of patients treated with RON showed an increase in VA, in comparison to 10 % (n = 2) of placebo-treated patients, and 20 % (n = 5) of patients treated with IVT. Significantly more patients showed an improvement in VA following RON than in the placebo group (p = 0.009). Significantly more patients showed an improvement in VA following RON than in the IVT group (p = 0.034). No significant difference was found when directly comparing improvement in VA following IVT and placebo (p = 0.667) treatment.Significantly (p = 0.007) more patients in the placebo group (35 %, n = 7) showed a deterioration (defined as > 3 lines LogMAR scale) in VA than patients in the RON group (8 %, n = 3).

CONCLUSION: Our study showed that following treatment with RON, patients with CRVO display a significantly better long-term VA than untreated patients and patients treated with a single dose of IVT.