[The intravasal ultraviolet irradiation of autologous blood in the treatment of central nonexudative chorioretinal dystrophy].

A course of ultraviolet irradiation (UVI) of the blood, followed by reinfusion, was carried out with the use of the Izol'da MD-73 apparatus in 156 patients (300 eyes) aged 35 to 82, suffering from nonexudative chorioretinal dystrophy. The course consisted of 5 sessions with intervals of 2 days, 12-16 min each. No drugs were used during or after the treatment, except heparin (10,000 U in 50 ml of physiologic saline), that was used to wash the system of reducing pipes to prevent the formation of thrombi during blood collection and reinfusion. Vision acuity improvement, achieved in 161 cases (53.7%), has been rather stable, persisting in remote periods of the follow-up (up to 12 mos). In the rest 139 cases either improvement, that was considered unreliable, or no changes were observed immediately after UVI course. The method is simple and does not involve the use of expensive and hard-to-get imported drugs, its functional effect is sufficiently good and stable; all these factors recommend UVI for wide clinical application to the treatment of central chorioretinal dystrophy.