Triamcinolone may provide short-term relief for refractory macular edema patients

Intravitreal triamcinolone injections can provide short-term increases in visual acuity and reduce macular thickness in patients with refractory macular edema, a prospective study found.

Pascale Massin, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Paris evaluated the efficacy of single intravitreal injections of 4 mg triamcinolone acetonide in 17 patients. Researchers injected the drug into one eye of each patient and the fellow eye served as a control.

The researchers found that the triamcinolone-treated eyes experienced a significant improvement in central macular thickness up to 12 weeks post-injection compared to control eyes.

Central macular thickness in treated eyes averaged 566.4 ± 182.4 µm at baseline, which decreased to 228.4 ± 47.5 µm at 4 weeks and to 210.9 ± 87.2 µm at 12 weeks follow-up. However, CMT increased to a mean 358.5 ± 160.5 µm at 24 weeks follow-up, and nine eyes experienced a recurrence of macular edema, according to the study.

Triamcinolone-treated eyes had significantly better ETDRS scores at all follow-up points, the authors noted.

Further studies could elucidate the long-term effects of this treatment, they added.

The study is published in the October issue of Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica.