AIM: To investigate the clinical efficacy of intravitreal injection of Ranibizumab and 577nm laser in the treatment of retinal vein occlusion combined with macular edema.

METHODS: Totally 64 patients(64 eyes)with retinal vein occlusion accompanied by macular edema were treated in our hospital from June 2014 to March 2017. Among them, 40 cases(40 eyes)were in the central retinal vein occlusion group, 24 cases(24 eyes)were in the branch retinal vein occlusion group. They were treated with intravitreal injection of ranibizumab 0.5mg, and the laser photocoagulation of 577nm was performed at 5 to 7d after injection. Meanwhile, 42 patients who did not wish to be treated with injection were treated with laser treatment only. The changes of the indexes before and after treatment were compared.

RESULTS: The average number of blocking group repeated injection of branch retinal vein for 1.71±0.79, while the average number of patients with repeated injection of central retinal vein occlusion was 2.11±0.80. All patients requiring repeated injections interval was greater than 30d. At 1mo after treatment, there was no patients with decreased visual acuity in branch retinal vein occlusion group, while there were 6 eyes with that in central retinal vein occlusion group, 14 eyes in simply laser group. The mean best corrected visual acuity(LogMAR)of the three groups was 0.87±0.60, 0.57±0.48 and 0.54±0.32, respectively, were significantly lower than that before treatment(1.26±0.53, 0.86±0.39, 0.76±0.26; P<0.05). The mean macular retinal thickness before treatment was 683.24±211.83, 557.39±128.29 and 545.82±129.76μm, were significantly higher than those at the last follow-up 412.09±257.38, 356.29±133.02 and 322.78±109.55μm(P<0.05). There were 6 cases of subconjunctival hemorrhage in patients treated with laser therapy combined with laser therapy. The intraocular pressure increased to 25mmHg in 2 eyes in 2 patients and recovered after symptomatic treatment.

CONCLUSION: Intravitreal injection of ranibizumab combined with 577nm laser treatment can greatly enhance the visual acuity, effective decrease macular retinal thickness in patients with retinal vein occlusion and macular edema.