BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Retinal vein occlusion, a condition in which blood vessels in the retina become blocked, is an important cause of vision loss - especially in diabetics.

While blockages in smaller branches of the blood vessels can be treated with laser therapy, there is currently no effective therapy for treating blockages in the central vein that provides blood to the eye.

In a study of 271 patients, researchers tested the effectiveness of administering steroid injection into the affected eye every four months.

The study found that after one year, 27 percent of those given a 1-milligram dose and 26 percent of those given a 4-milligram dose showed significant vision improvement.

Those receiving treatment were five times as likely to reach a pre-determined level of visual improvement than those who were not given the injections.

Further research is needed to test the safety of this method, but these findings will most likely be very influential to future clinical practice.