Introduction
RP, occlusion of the central retinal artery, CRAO, corneal epithelial damage, retinal artery occlusion, loss of visual function
RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA (RP), RETINA, RETINAL ARTERY OCCLUSION, CENTRAL RETINAL ARTERY OCCLUSION, COMPLICATIONS
Electrical stimulation therapy has been reported to improve visual function in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) [Previous studies have shown that the improvement of visual function by ocular electrical stimulation is related to the improvement of survival rate and functional activation of retinal ganglion cells by the activation of insulin-like growth factor-1 [Most clinical studies on electrical stimulation of the eyeball use an electrical stimulation method with a corneal electrode. However, transcorneal electrical stimulation (TES), in which the electrodes are placed in direct contact with the corneal epithelium, may cause corneal epithelial damage. Therefore, we developed a transdermal electrical stimulation (TdES) device jointly with Mayo Co. Ltd. and performed a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of transdermal electrical stimulation with skin electrodes in patients with RP. We confirmed that TdES did not cause any complications, and the visual acuity and mean deviation value of Humphrey field analyzer (HFA)10-2 significantly improved after TdES [Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) results in a severe loss of visual function by reducing or blocking the retinal blood flow including the macula, due to occlusion of the central retinal artery [Since one of the mechanisms of ocular electrical stimulation is improvement of the survival rate and functional activation of ganglion cells in the inner retina, electrical stimulation is considered effective for retinal artery occlusion.Therefore, TES for retinal artery occlusion has been attempted, and improvements in the visual field and multilocal electroretinogram waveforms have been reported [Thus, the purpose of this exploratory clinical trial was to evaluate the visual function and safety of TdES in patients with CRAO.