Solitary retinal hemangioblastoma findings in OCTA pre- and post-laser therapy

Abstract

Purpose: To report optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) findings pre- and post-thermal laser therapy of a rare, asymptomatic, unilateral, isolated retinal hemangioblastoma. Observations: A 40-year-old asymptomatic Caucasian man was found to have an isolated, unilateral retinal hemangioblastoma after referral for possible retinal hole. Comparison of OCTAs pre- and post-thermal laser therapy demonstrated a significant reduction of blood flow toward and within the lesion, in addition to contraction of the lesion and constriction of the accompanying feeder vessels. A 4-month follow-up OCTA showed marked reduction of lesion size, and caliber of treated vessels. Conclusions and importance: Non-invasive OCTA imaging of a retinal hemangioblastoma demonstrated decreased blood flow signal and vessel caliber after treatment. OCTA shows potential as a new tool to improve our understanding of the effectiveness of therapy in these lesions. Keywords: OCTA, Retinal hemangioblastoma, Thermal laser therapy