Serosa is a buildup of fluid behind the retina that causes impaired vision
The eye disease central serous chorioretinopathy, also called serosa, has more than one treatment method. No consensus has yet been reached on which produces the best results. Physician-researcher Thomas van Rijssen compared three treatments and found a clear winner: photodynamic therapy. He recently defended his dissertation.
Van Rijssen’s clinical research showed that serosa can be treated better with photodynamic therapy than with laser treatments or the drug eplerenone. “In the Netherlands, this is already the most commonly used treatment for the disease,” says Van Rijssen, “but in the United Kingdom it is not even reimbursed. Hopefully, thanks to these results, that will change.”
Retina
Serosa is a buildup of fluid behind the retina that causes impaired vision. In the most effective treatment, photodynamic therapy, patients are administered a substance via the blood: “The substance only becomes effective when you expose it to specific light. This allows us to treat the retina very specifically by shining a laser on it.” After the treatment, which focuses on the small blood vessels behind the retina, the fluid often does not return.
A micropulse laser treatment, on the other hand, targets the pigment cells of the retina. A laser heats these cells at very short intervals to encourage them to absorb the moisture. “This treatment is often less effective, presumably because the cause of the disease is actually in the blood vessels,” explains the doctor.
dummy medicine
While Van Rijssen was investigating the effectiveness of the third treatment, namely the one with eplerenone, a ‘water pill’, a relevant study was published about the drug: “The study showed that the pill works just as well as a decoy! It’s a good thing that my research shows that with photodynamic therapy we have a drug that works better.”
Follow-up research
According to the doctor, the fact that a consensus on the best therapy has not been reached for so long is because the disease is difficult to investigate: “Serosa can disappear spontaneously, so it is not always clear whether the treatment works or not.”
Van Rijssen’s successor will continue the research and will look at the long-term results, among other things. “I expect that follow-up research will focus on the origin of the disease. If we find out, we may be able to develop even better treatments.”
Van Rijssen is currently training to become an ophthalmologist.
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