Driving Eligibility in Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

In this issue of JAMA Ophthalmology, Subash et al¹ report that most of their study participants who underwent bilateral multispot laser panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) met the visual field standard for holding a car or motorcycle license in the United Kingdom 6 months after treatment. As the authors point out, although PRP has been shown to reduce the risk for severe visual loss from PDR, the treatment can come at a cost to peripheral vision, namely, loss of peripheral light sensitivity. In this study, the authors document some loss of peripheral vision; however, 35 of the 38 available participants (92%) met the United Kingdom’s visual field requirement for licensure 6 months after treatment.