Survival prognosis of patients with retinal artery occlusion and associated carotid artery disease.

The records of 151 patients who developed retinal arterial obstruction were reviewed to evaluate the survival prognosis of these patients. Survival rates were calculated to expected rates of an age- and sex-matched control group of patients without retinal arterial obstruction. The presence of visible embolus and a branch retinal artery occlusion were found to be significant factors for worse survival prognosis (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.001, respectively). The survival rate of the entire group of 151 patients with retinal artery occlusion was not significantly different from that of the age- and sex-matched group (P = 0.29). Among the patients evaluated with continuous-wave Doppler sonography, the presence or the absence of the atheromatous carotid disease did not significantly affect the survival.