Repeated intravitreal injection of triamcinolone for exudative age-related macular degeneration.

Background: Intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide has been discussed as treatment for exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Objectives: To give an updated report on repeated intravitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) for the treatment of exudative AMD.

Methods: The case-series study included 24 patients (24 eyes) with progressive exudative AMD who had shown an increase in, or stabilization of, visual acuity after a first IVTA, and who eventually experienced a deterioration of visual acuity. The 24 (6.5%) eyes were selected out of a total group of 369 eyes who had received IVTA for exudative AMD within the last 5 years. All patients of the study received a second IVTA (approximately 20 mg) 3.7-38.5 months after the first injection. Main outcome measure was visual acuity.

Results: After the first injection, best corrected visual acuity improved significantly (p = 0.001) from 0.75 +/- 0.34 logMAR to a minimum of 0.58 +/- 0.30 logMAR during follow-up, with 10 (42%) eyes improving in visual acuity by two or more Snellen lines. Towards the end of follow-up after the first injection, best corrected visual acuity decreased significantly (p = 0.03) compared with the baseline value. After the second injection, visual acuity did not change markedly from baseline to a mean maximal visual acuity during follow-up. Comparing the last postoperative examination at the end of the follow-up after the second IVTA with the preoperative examination, a significantly (p = 0.001) higher number of eyes lost in visual acuity [19 (79%) eyes] than gained in visual acuity [3 (12%) eyes].

Conclusions: In selected eyes with an increase in visual acuity after a first IVTA (20 mg), repeated IVTA temporarily stabilizes visual acuity with a drop in visual acuity towards the end of follow-up.