No increase in complications seen with cataract surgery after triamcinolone injection

Patients undergoing cataract surgery after single or repeated intravitreal injection of 25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide do not have an elevated likelihood of intraoperative or postoperative complications, according to a study.

J. Jonas and colleagues from Heidelberg University in Mannheim, Germany, reported on the outcomes in 22 patients who developed cataract after being treated with intravitreal triamcinolone for exudative age-related macular degeneration (18) or diffuse diabetic macular edema (4). All patients had received at least one intravitreal injection of 25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide as treatment.

Standard phacoemulsification cataract surgery and posterior chamber IOL implantation were performed in all eyes. The main outcome measures were the frequencies of capsular rupture, vitreous loss, postoperative infectious endophthalmitis, posterior capsular opacification, decentration of the IOL, visual acuity and IOP.

In one eye, intraoperative dialysis of the lens zonules resulted in vitreous loss. Another eye developed PCO that required Nd:YAG capsulotomy. The study authors said no patient had a significantly decentered IOL or infectious endophthalmitis. Visual acuity increased during the follow-up period from 0.11 to 0.13. IOP was within the normal range in all patients within 1 week postoperatively.

The study is published in the April issue of Eye.