Comparing treatment outcomes in randomized controlled trials of central serous chorioretinopathy.

Purpose: To perform a qualitative analysis of outcomes published from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) from 1979 to 2022.

Design: Systematic review.

Methods: All RCTs (including both therapeutic and non-therapeutic interventions) on CSCR available online till July 2022 were included after an electronic search in multiple databases such as PubMed, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, Scopus, and Cochrane database. We analyzed and compared the inclusion criteria, imaging modalities, study endpoints, duration, and the results of the study.

Results: The literature search yielded 498 potential publications. After excluding duplicate studies and studies that met clear exclusion criteria, 64 were screened for further evaluation, of which 7 were removed due to a lack of necessary inclusion criteria. A total of 57 eligible studies are described in this review.

Conclusion: This review provides a comparative overview of key outcomes reported between RCTs investigating CSCR. We describe the current landscape of treatment modalities for CSCR and note the discrepancies between results in these published studies. Challenges arise when attempting to compare similar study designs without comparable outcome measures (i.e., clinical vs. structural) which may limit the overall evidence presented. To mitigate this issue, we present the collected data from each study in tables detailing the measures that are and are not assessed in each publication.