A review of risk factors for retinal vein occlusions

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Risk factors for retinal vein occlusion have been extensively studied, with varying population sizes. Smaller populations result in less certain measures of associations. The present review included studies with a relevant population size to identify clinically relevant risk factors for retinal vein occlusion. Understanding the risk factors of retinal vein occlusion is important for the management of these patients.

Areas covered

A comprehensive literature review was conducted through a systematic literature search in PubMed and Embase. Additional studies were selected from cross references in the assessed studies. Weighted effect measures were calculated for all included risk factors.

Risk factors associated with retinal vein occlusion included cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, systemic diseases, medical interventions, and sociodemographic factors.

Expert Opinion

This review provided an extensive overview of a wide variety of risk factors increasing the risk of developing retinal vein occlusion. The severity of the identified risk factors indicated that these patients have been in contact with the health care system before their retinal vein occlusion event. Therefore, the clinical course for patients with retinal vein occlusion may benefit from a multidisciplinary collaboration between ophthalmologists and especially cardiologists.

KEYWORDS:

• retinal vein occlusion
• risk factors
• etiology
• review
• systematic literature search

Article highlights

• This review provides a comprehensive overview of risk factors associated with the development of retinal vein occlusion.

• Weighting of effect measures and included sample sizes ensure considerable statistical power supporting the identified risk factors.

• The identified risk factors supported directly or indirectly the known pathogeneses for retinal vein occlusion, including systemic atherosclerosis and changes in the pressure gradient of the eye.

• An overview of the insignificantly associated risk factors was included as well, to summarize all risk factors investigated for retinal vein occlusion.

• Understanding the associated risk factors and the risk factors not associated with the disease is important in the development of effective management of these patients.

Declaration of interest

TBL has been a speaker for Bayer, BMS/Pfizer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Roche Diagnostics, and on an advisory board for Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Roche Diagnostics. HV has served as an advisory board member for Bayer and Novartis. FLS has received consultancy fees from Bayer. GYHL is a consultant and speaker for BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Daiichi-Sankyo.

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

All authors conceptualized the manuscript. M Ørskov wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors provided feedback on the manuscript and approved its final version. The authors take full responsibility for the content of the article.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14779072.2022.2112667

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.