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Triamcinolone a potential treatment for macular edema
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Intravitreal triamcinolone may be useful as a treatment for macular edema associated with branch retinal vein occlusion, according to a study.
Osman Cekic, MD, PhD, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the charts of 13 eyes of 13 patients who had undergone intravitreal injections with 4 mg triamcinolone acetonide for macular edema due to branch retinal vein occlusion. The mean age of the patients was 68 years. Six of the eyes received a single injection; repeated injections were preformed in one eye twice, four eyes three time and two eyes four times. Mean follow-up was 13 months. The average time between symptom onset and first injection was 7.4 months.
The mean central foveal thickness after injection decreased to 56% of the values before injection. Final visual acuity improved in seven eyes (with an increase of two to six Snellen lines), remained the same in four eyes and worsened in two eyes. Retinal thickness decreased in all eyes; vision improved in most cases. As the number of injections increased, cataractous changes increased as well. Improvement in visual acuity was significantly correlated with patient age. Cataract extraction was judged to aggravate macular edema in three of the five eyes undergoing surgery.
The study is published in the October/November issue of Retina.