Early versus late intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide for macular edema associated with branch retinal vein occlusion

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the effect of early versus late intravitreal injection of triamcinolone in patients with macular edema due to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO).

Methods: Twenty eyes of 20 patients with macular edema from BRVO, including 10 with duration after onset of or <or= 3 months and 10 with duration of 3 months, were treated using a single intravitreal triamcinolone injection (4 mg/0.1 ml). Best-corrected visual acuity and foveal thickness by optical coherence tomography were measured 1, 3, and 6 months post-injection.

Results: In patients that received treatment after a disease duration of <or= 3 months, visual acuity and foveal thickness significantly improved from baseline over 6 months of follow-up. However, in those with a duration of >3 months, improvements in visual acuity and foveal thickness, though apparent at 1 month, were not maintained at 3 and 6 months post-triamcinolone.

Conclusions: Intravitreal triamcinolone is more effective in patients with BRVO who are treated earlier.

Fig. 1

LogMAR visual acuity results in the early and late treatment groups. A significant sustained improvement was evident in the early treatment group throughout the subsequent 6-month follow-up, but in the late treatment group, the initial improvement at 1 month was not sustained at 3 and 6 months.

Fig. 2

Foveal thickness by optical coherence tomography in the early and late treatment groups. A significant improvement was observed in the early treatment group throughout the 6-month follow-up, but the improvement observed at 1month was not further sustained in the late treatment group.