[Laser therapy of diabetic maculopathy. A comparative study of the argon green laser and dye red laser].

One hundred eyes with (pre)-proliferative diabetic retinopathy underwent central laser treatment for macular involvement. Fifty eyes were treated with the dye red 630 nm, the other 50 with the argon green 514 nm laser. Eighty of the eyes had previously undergone panretinal photocoagulation; in the other 20 this was performed 1.5-3 months after treating the macula because the central retinal changes were predominant. In accordance with the clinical angiographic classification of diabetic maculopathy, into an exudative, an edematous, and an ischemic type, three photocoagulation techniques were employed as appropriate, i.e., focal coagulation, (modified) grid coagulation, and extensive centripetal panretinal coagulation. Neither postoperative visual acuity, nor the fluorescein angiogram, nor fundus color photography revealed any significant difference in the results obtained with the two laser wavelengths.