Systemic prostaglandin E1 to treat acute central retinal artery occlusion.

Purpose: To report the efficacy of systemic prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) monotherapy for treating acute central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).

Methods: The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and side effects were evaluated retrospectively in 10 consecutive eyes (nine patients; mean age, 61.3 years) with acute CRAO treated with PGE1 monotherapy. The protocol included intravenous injection of 40 μg PGE1 twice daily (80 μg per day) for 5 days then oral PGE1 three times daily (30 μg per day) for at least 1 month. In four eyes, the retinal vessel diameters were assessed on serial fundus photographs.

Results: The mean time to treatment was 7.1 hours (range, 1-18 hours). The mean ± SD logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) BCVAs at baseline and 1 month after initiation of therapy were 2.67 ± 0.54 (range, 3.00-1.70) and 0.52 ± 0.62 (range, 2.00 to -0.18), respectively (P = 0.005); the BCVA improved by 1.0 or more logMAR unit at 1 month in all eyes. The BCVA improvement was correlated negatively with the time to treatment (ρ = -0.655, P = 0.0492), but was not correlated with age (ρ = -0.473, P = 0.156) and did not differ between sexes (P = 0.0871). Compared with baseline, the mean changes in the vessel diameters in four cases were 151.1% (range, 115.1%-188.0%) in the arteries and 191.0% (range, 127.2%-246.4%) in the veins 1 day after initiation of therapy. Angialgia during injection was the only side effect.

Conclusions: Systemic administration of PGE1 for acute CRAO rapidly restores retinal blood flow by its vasodilatory effects, improves VA, is well tolerated with few side effects, and requires no special training.