Background and objective: To evaluate the vitreomacular interface and its relation to treatment burden for diabetic macular edema (DME) in patients without overt vitreomacular traction (VMT).
Patients and methods: A retrospective cohort study of 494 eyes from 274 patients who had macular spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and did not have proliferative diabetic retinopathy, DME, or VMT at the initial visit. Posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) was categorized at the initial visit into five stages (0-4) using SD-OCT parameters alone.
Results: Two of 34 eyes (6.9%) presenting with a complete PVD required DME treatment during follow-up, whereas 144 of 460 eyes (31.3%) without a complete PVD at baseline required treatment (P = .001, Chi-squared). After adjusting for age, ethnicity, gender, and HbA1c, complete PVD at baseline was associated with a significant reduction in risk of DME therapy (hazard ratio: 0.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.05-0.73; P = .02).
Conclusion: Complete PVD is independently associated with a reduced need for DME treatment. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2019;50:e266-e273.].
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