Retinal Diseases: Mechanisms, Diagnosis and Treatments

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have faced huge improvements and tremendous challenges regarding both medical and surgical approaches in several retinal diseases. Genetic treatments have already been employed in patients with inherited retinal disorders (IRD), such as the daily use of voretigene neparvovec by patients with mutations in both copies of the RPE65 gene. These developments have opened a promising pathway for new research in gene editing for managing retinitis pigmentosa (RP), Stargardt disease, Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), cone rod dystrophy, and so on.

One of the most important tools in retinal diagnosis is optical coherence tomography (OCT), in addition to color fundus photography, fundus autofluorescence (FAF), fluorescein angiography (FA), indocyanine green angiography (ICG), and wide-field (WF) and ultra-wide-field (UWF) multimodal imaging scans, which are the most widely used methods in the comprehensive evaluation of vitreo-retinal diseases. These higher speed scanning systems provide us with impressive opportunities to understand the mechanisms of the diseases of interest.

The surgical treatment of different retinal pathologies represents another area of continuous improvement. Vitreo-retinal surgeries have become increasingly more safe and efficient with the development of 27 gauge microincisional vitreo-retinal surgery (MIVS), two-dimensional cutting speed instruments (20,000 cuts per minute (cpm)), better fluidics and the possibility to continuously control intraocular pressure (IOP), heads-up 3D visualization systems, and the foot switch pedal-controlled subretinal injection of small volumes of different substances. Future developments in this field have already been announced, with a huge interest and uptake being expected.

The widespread use of intravitreal injections with anti-VEGF agents or even steroids for the treatment of different retinal diseases like age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), macular edema (ME) secondary to retinal vein occlusions (RVO), and non-infectious uveitis (NIU) revealed several needs regarding the extension of the interval between treatments and the possibility to be more efficient by introducing new therapeutical agents into our armamentarium.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to discuss matters associated with new concepts in the diagnosis and treatment of retinal diseases.  The scope of this Special Issue is deliberately broad to encourage the coverage of a wide range of topics and perspectives related to the mechanisms of retinal diseases that are newly revealed by state-of-the-art diagnostic tools and related to promising therapeutic approaches in this field through original contributions or reviews.

Prof. Dr. Horia T. Stanca
Prof. Dr. Mihnea Munteanu
Guest Editors

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• multimodality
• vitreo-retinal surgery
• anti-VEGF agents
• genetic treatments