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  • Safety of FA in Children

    By Jean Shaw
    Selected By: Andrew P. Schachat, MD
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    Journal Highlights

    Ophthalmology Retina, June 2020

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    Chee et al. evaluated the safety of flu­orescein angiography (FA) in pediatric patients. They found that FA was not associated directly with systemic or ocular adverse events. In addition, they found that younger children were more likely to undergo inpatient FA exam­inations, while those older than age 4 were more likely to be evaluated in an outpatient setting.

    For this retrospective study, the researchers reviewed the charts of 115 patients who were treated between Jan­uary 2010 and December 2015. Patients with fewer than 24 hours of document­ed follow-up were excluded.

    A total of 214 FA exams were per­formed. Of these, 129 took place in 60 outpatients, and 85 occurred in 65 inpatients. (Ten patients underwent both in-and outpatient exams.) The researchers reviewed a number of intra-and perioperative physiologi­cal parameters, including heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen satura­tion. Peri-injection effects of FA were evaluated by a two-tailed paired t-test comparison of mean five-minute pre-and postinjection physiological data.

    The results showed a significant difference in patient age for inpatient exams (mean, 2.5 years; range, 4 weeks to 16.2 years) and outpatient evalua­tions (mean, 10.7 years; range, 3.8 to 18.4 years). No significant systemic or ocular adverse events were noted with­in 24 hours of FA, whether it was given on an in-or outpatient basis.

    The original article can be found here.