Compliance to Ophthalmic Follow-up Examinations and Surgical Outcome for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

The medical records of 94 patients that had undergone vitreous surgery for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and were followed for at least 6 months were reviewed. The subjects were divided into three groups; the never-treated group consisting of patients who had no previous ophthalmic examination until the first visit when vitreous surgery was prescribed; the non-compliant group consisting of patients with a history of missing ophthalmic examination over a one year period, and the compliant group consisting of patients who had ophthalmic examinations at least once a year. The evaluations included age, gender, plasma level of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at the preoperative examination, presence of preoperative panretinal photocoagulation, preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), postoperative BCVA at the final examination, status of the PDR, the numbers of vitreous surgeries, and presence of pre- and postoperative neovascular glaucoma.