The fellow eye in retinal vein occlusive disease.

Bilateral occurrence of retinal vein occlusive disease is relatively uncommon. In this retrospective review of 157 patients with retinal vein occlusion, 74 had unilateral major trunk occlusion (MTO), i.e., either central (CRVO) or hemicentral (hemi-CRVO) retinal vein occlusion, 12 had MTO in both eyes, and two had MTO in one eye and branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) in the other. In 69 patients there was unilateral BRVO. Thus, 8.9% of the patients had bilateral retinal vein occlusive disease of any type. Of the 88 patients with MTO in at least one eye, 13.6% had MTO disease in the fellow eye as well and only 2.3% had BRVO in the fellow eye. Major trunk occlusion in one eye thus appears to be a greater risk factor than BRVO for the bilateral occurrence of retinal vein occlusive disease. Another factor predisposing to bilateral occurrence in the group of patients with MTO was the coexistence of diabetic retinopathy (P less than 0.05).