Key takeaways:

• Statin use reduced proliferative vitreoretinopathy risk by 47% and complex reoperation rate by 48%.
• All dosing intensities provided statistically significant results, but protection level was dose-dependent.

Systemic statin use reduced the rate of proliferative vitreoretinopathy and reoperation following primary retinal detachment repair by nearly half, according to a speaker at the American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting.

“Statins are the most commonly prescribed drugs for high cholesterol, but they also have anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic properties, including inhibiting IL-6, IL-8 and MCP-1 in [retinal pigment epithelium] cells,” Christina Y. Weng, MD, MBA, FASRS, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Healio. “The purpose of our study was to determine if oral statin use is associated with a reduced risk of PVR and reoperation after RD repair and, if so, whether there was a dose-dependent effect.”

In this video, Christina Y. Weng, MD, MBA, FASRS, discusses the impact of statin use on  proliferative vitreoretinopathy risk after retinal detachment surgery.

Using the TriNetX U.S. federated database, Weng and colleagues assigned patients who had previously undergone primary retinal detachment (RD) repair to two groups: those who were on statins at the time of repair and those who were not, with the primary outcomes being the incidence of new-onset proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) and RD reoperation.

“Patients were then propensity score-matched based on nine factors, and that gave us two cohorts of almost 4,000 patients each,” Weng told Healio.

According to Weng, statin use reduced the risk for PVR by 47% and the risk for complex RD reoperation by 48%.

According to the abstract, statin use yielded statistically significant levels of protection across high, medium and low doses, with high-intensity statin use being the most consistent, highlighting a dose-dependent effect.

“Given these findings and the fact that statins are cost-effective and well tolerated, future study is warranted to further explore whether statins could be a viable part of RD management,” Weng told Healio.

For more information:

Christina Y. Weng, MD, MBA, FASRS, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, can be reached at christina.weng@bcm.edu.