Intravitreal triamcinolone helpful in diabetic macular edema with hard exudates

Intravitreal triamcinolone improved visual acuity and decreased the size of exudates in patients with chronic diabetic macular edema with severe foveal hard exudates, a Turkish study found.

Remzi Avci, MD, and Berkant Kaderli, MD, at Uludag University Hospital in Bursa studied the effects of triamcinolone injection in 33 eyes of 28 patients with chronic diabetic macular edema and severe foveal hard exudates. All patients underwent intravitreal injection of 4 mg of triamcinolone acetonide. The patients were divided into two groups: those with plaque-like exudates and those with dot-like scattered hard exudates. Patients were followed for 6 months.

At the final visit, hard exudates were completely resolved in 12% of eyes with plaque-like exudates and in 50% of those with dot-like exudates. Hard exudates decreased by 76% in the first group and by 50% in the second group.

Mean visual acuity also improved significantly in both groups, the authors said. “However, the visual acuity improvement was significantly worse in eyes with plaque-like exudates, suggesting the possible value of earlier treatment,” they reported.

The study is published in the January issue of Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.