MONTREAL -- People with a history of statin use had almost a 50% lower risk of two major complications after surgery for retinal detachment, a large propensity-matched analysis showed.
Among almost 7,500 patients undergoing retinal detachment surgery, the risk of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) and rate of complex reoperation were 47% and 48% lower, respectively, in statin users. High-dose statin therapy had the most consistent association with reduced risk of the two complications.
Though limited by the retrospective nature of the study, the findings warrant further investigation to determine whether statins might have an adjunctive role in management of retinal detachment, reported Christina Weng, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.
"The bottom line is that statin use in our study was associated with nearly a 50% lower incidence of PVR and reoperations for people on these medications," said Weng. "Because of these findings, as well as the fact that statins are well tolerated and cost effective, future study is warranted to explore whether statins may have a viable position in RD [retinal detachment]."
Statins were among more than a dozen common medications and micronutrients identified in a recent study involving use of advanced bioinformatics to link downregulated gene expression in PVR to "potential medications that are already on the market," said session moderator and discussant Flavio Rezende, MD, PhD, of the University of Montreal. "So there seems to be a signal that something is already there before we actually start operating."
