Turkish Abstract Abstract Article PDF Similar Articles Mail to Author

¹SB Ankara Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Göz Klinikleri, Ankara, Uzm. Dr.
²SB Ankara Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Göz Klinikleri, Ankara, Doç. Dr.
³SB Ankara Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi 2. Göz Kliniği Şefi, Ankara, Uzm. Dr. Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) for refractory diabetic macular edema with optic coherence tomography-3 (OCT-3).
Materials and Methods: 4mg triamsinolone acetonide was injected into the vitreous of the 20 eyes and 20 patients (10 female, 10 male) whom were treated with argon laser previously for diabetic macular edema, aged 45 to 76 years (average 59.55). The mean central macular thickness was measured with OCT-3 before, 1 weeks after and 1, 3 and 6 months after IVTA. Best-corrected visual acuity and findings of ocular examinations were recorded. The differences between the central macular thickness at the baseline and follow-up examinations were analysed with variance test and the visual acuity by Wilcoxon test with a Bonferroni correction.
Results: The mean central macular thickness before, 1 weeks after, and 1, 3 and 6 months after IVTA were 417.75, 373.55, 250.65, 251.3 and 360.4 μm respectively. At the 1st month the visual acuity of 11 eyes improved, 7 eyes remained the same and 2 eyes were worsened. At 6th month, the visual acuity of 8 eyes improved, 3 eyes worsened and 9 eyes remained the same. Intraocular pressure exceeded 25 mmHg in 4 eyes, and were controlled by topical medication. One eye showed cataract development. The difference between the relative changes in macular thickness and the visual acuity were significant at 1 month and 3 months (p<0.001) (p<0.0125) respectively.
Conclusion: Intravitreal injection of triamcinolone effectively reduces macular thickening due to diabetic macular edema in short term but after 6 months recurrent edema develops and the improvement of visual acuity is no longer permanent. Keywords : Diabetic macular edema, intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide, optic coherence tomography