Intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide for the treatment of refractory diabetic macular macular edema

Abstract EN

A prospective / descriptive/ non-comparative pilot study was used to evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal injec¬tion of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) for the treatment of patients with refractory diabetic macular edema that had not responded to laser treatment.

Forty eyes of 35 patients with visual acuity (VA) < 6 / 12 were injected with TA 4 mg / O.lcc under topical anesthesia.

Results were assessed and analyzed using changes in visual acuity (VA), retinal thickness (RT) and macular volume measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT).

In 62.85 % of cases the VA improved by more than two Snellen’s lines, the initial VA (mean/ log MAR) being 0.67 changing to 0.31 after six months (p = 0.008).

RT improved in all patients, having the most remarkable improvement in the Macular Volume, with a decrease of 2.7 mm3 at the end of the study (p = 0.009).

Both improvement of VA and RT were more marked during the early follow-up.

The most common complication was ocular hypertension (OHT) in 22.5 % of eyes, all of which responded to medical ant glaucoma treatment.

Intravitreal injection of TA looks to be a useful option for the treatment of refractory diabetic macular edema.