Intravitreal Sustained-Release Steroid Implants for the Treatment of Macular Edema following Surgical Removal of Epiretinal Membranes

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal dexamethasone implant for the treatment of postoperative persistent cystoid macular edema (CME) following macular pucker surgery. Methods: In this multicenter study, we retrospectively reviewed the data of 37 patients (39 eyes) who had been treated with intravitreal dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex (R)) for persistent CME following macular pucker surgery. Main outcome measures were change in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT). Results: All eyes underwent spectral domain optical coherence tomography examination within 130 days after implantation. We observed a significant decrease in mean CRT from 519.9 to 392.9 mu m (p < 0.0001). By this time, mean BCVA had improved from 0.60 to 0.43 logMAR (p = 0.003). Seventeen eyes (43.6%) required at least 1 repeat injection of dexamethasone. Of these, 8 (47%) eyes received a total number of 3 or more dexamethasone injections. Conclusion: Intravitreal dexamethasone implant injection is an effective treatment option for persistent CME following macular pucker surgery. (C) 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel