Subretinal surgery and transplantation of autologous pigment epithelial cells in retinal angiomatous proliferation

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine whether the presence of retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP) is a prognostic factor in subretinal surgery with transplantation of a suspension of autologous retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Methods: Eyes that had been followed for at least 12 months after subretinal surgery were reviewed retrospectively and assigned to group 1 (presence of RAP) or group 2 (lesions without RAP). Main outcome measures were logMAR distance acuity and lesion size at 12 months. Results: A total of 68 eyes of 68 patients were included; 28 were assigned to group 1 and 40 to group 2. A total of 43% of patients were male and 57% were female. Their mean age was 77.8 years. Mean distance acuity was 1.02 logMAR at baseline and 1.06 logMAR at month 12. Mean lesion size was 27.9 mm² at baseline and 29.9 mm² at month 12. The differences between the groups were not significant. Conclusions: The presence of RAP did not significantly influence the outcome after subretinal surgery with transplantation of autologous RPE cells. Other than age, preoperative lesion size and distance acuity were the only predictive factors for postoperative results.