Prospective Randomized Controlled Treatment Trial for Chronic Central Serous Chorioretinopathy (PLACE)

Chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) is a relatively frequent eye disease that often occurs in patients in the professionally active age range. In this disease, there is pooling of fluid under the central retina (the macula). This specific form of macular degeneration can cause permanent vision loss, image distortion, loss of color and contrast vision due to this fluid under the retina. An early diagnosis and treatment may improve the visual outcome and quality of life. To date there is no international consensus on the optimal treatment of chronic CSC. Many retrospective studies suggest that treatment with photodynamic therapy (PDT) is effective in chronic CSC. Micropulse laser (ML) therapy may also be effective in this disease. The proposed study is the first prospective randomized controlled trial in chronic CSC. In this study, participants with chronic CSC will be randomized into two treatment groups, PDT or ML treatment. The trial is a superiority study, because retrospective studies suggest that PDT treatment may be more effective than ML treatment. Therefore, PDT treatment is challenged against ML treatment. The null hypothesis of the study is that PDT treatment is more effective than ML treatment in patients with active chronic CSC. The alternative hypothesis is that PDT treatment is not more effective than ML treatment in these patients. Treatment success will not only be based on anatomical improvement, but also on functional endpoints, which are most important from a patient's perspective.