• Sibel Inan, Onur Polat, Safiye Yıgıt, and Umit Ubeyt Inan.
• Department of Ophthalmology, Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
• Afr Health Sci. 2018 Dec 1; 18 (4): 1010-1017.

BackgroundMost of patients experience pain during the panretinal photocoagulation(PRP). Laser photocoagulation delivery has advanced with the introduction of pattern-scanning laser systems (PASCAL). Shorter pulse duration and less choroidal penetration believed to reduce pain during the laser treatment.ObjectivesTo compare the severity of expressed pain scores in patients with PDR who underwent PRP either with PASCAL laser or conventional laser.MethodsA total of 28 patients with a diagnosis of PDR who were scheduled for bilateral PRP therapy were enrolled into the prospective study. Both eyes were treated within the same session and while one eye was treated with PASCAL the other was treated with conventional laser randomly. Pulse duration was adjusted to 100-ms in conventional laser and 30 ms in PASCAL. The severity of pain was graded using a verbal scale and a visual analog scale (VAS).ResultsMean age was 61.36±9.10 years. Mean verbal and VAS scores were 1.32±0.47 and 2.86±1.21 in the PASCAL laser and 2.39±0.49 and 5.75±1.35 in the conventional laser group, respectively. Differences between expressed pain scores obtained by both two scales were statistically significant (p<0.001).ConclusionPASCAL laser significantly alleviates pain levels possibly due to the shorter laser pulse duration and lower intensity.

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