Long term effectiveness of photocoagulation for diabetic maculopathy.

The long term visual results of photocoagulation for diabetic maculopathy were determined in 128 eyes of 95 patients followed over ten years. The mean age of patients was 55.5 years and mean follow up time was 7 years. Ten year data were available on forty patients (62 eyes) and of the remainder the majority had died. Of those eyes initially with good vision (defined as 6/12 or better), 60% maintained this level of acuity at ten years and of those which deteriorated 50% became blind (defined as 6/60 or worse). A significantly greater proportion of eyes with exudative maculopathy (48%) had good final vision compared to eyes with oedematous and ischaemic maculopathy (26%).