Recent Innovations in Medical and Surgical Retina.

Purpose: To highlight recent innovations in the medical and surgical treatment of retinal disease.

Design: Retrospective literature review.

Methods: The peer-reviewed, published (during 2012) English literature was searched using the Medline database. Articles deemed relevant were selected and highlighted.

Results: A number of important innovations in the treatment of retinal disease have occurred during the past year. We review developments in regenerative medicine (e.g., retinal prosthesis, optogenetics, cell-based therapy), diagnostics (e.g., swept source optical coherence tomography [OCT], intraoperative OCT, multimodal imaging), surgical innovations (e.g., chemical vitreolysis with ocriplasmin, 27-gauge vitrectomy), and pharmacological therapy of retinal vascular disease (e.g., use of ranibizumab and aflibercept in the treatment of macular edema associated with diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion).

Conclusions: Many important innovations in regenerative medicine, diagnostic and surgical instrumentation, and pharmacological therapy for retinal vascular disease have occurred during the past year. In view of the number of agents in early phase clinical trials (e.g., treatments for dry age-related macular degeneration) as well as technologies under development (e.g., microrobots for vitreous surgery), this trend will continue.