Valencia's Hospital La Fe has developed a medical technique that allows doctors to replace complicated retinal surgery to correct refractory macular edema with a ten-minute out patient procedure.

The technique and its results have just been published in specialist magazines like the American Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and have attracted interest from well-known medical centres like the John Hopkins University.

According to hospital sources, the new technique has already been used to successfully treat 200 cases of refractory macular edema and is now being used to treat other problems with the retina.

Refractory macular edema is one the main cause of vision loss in patients with diabetes, characterised by an abnormal accumulation of liquid in the macula, the central part of the retina, causing it to thicken and swell, distorting the patient's vision.

In order to correct the problem, the vitreous humour, the clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eyeball, has to be detached. 

The new technique consists in taking a small quanitity of plasmin, an important enzyme present in blood that breaks down many blood plasma proteins, most notably fibrin clots, and inject it directly inside the eye.

The ophthalmologists from La Fe hospital who have been involved in the development of this new technique, will present their findings at the next American Academy of Ophthalmology conference, the most important annual event in the world of ophthalmology.