How Treatment Intensity Varies in Retinal Vein Occlusion — and Why It Matters
How frequently should a patient with retinal vein occlusion receive injections? It turns out that the answer depends significantly on which ophthalmologist is treating them. Dr Adrian Hunt's PhD research used real-world data from the Fight Retinal Blindness! registry at the Save Sight Institute to examine outliers of treatment frequency — not at the patient level, but at the practitioner level.
The study compared ophthalmologists over 24 months and found substantial variation in how intensively they treat RVO, demonstrating the range of outcomes achievable across the board. The findings were published in Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology in 2025.
This research was selected for the RANZCO 2024 Best Paper Session — a competitive plenary session reserved for the strongest research submitted to the annual congress. It was subsequently featured in the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Academy Express, accompanied by editorial commentary and a continuing professional development (CPD) supplement for ophthalmologists internationally.
What this means for patients: This research shines a light on practice-level variation in how RVO is managed. Understanding that treatment intensity differs between practitioners — and what outcomes each approach achieves — helps inform evidence-based treatment decisions and gives patients context for the injection schedule their ophthalmologist recommends.