title: Early treatment response of fluocinolone (retisert) implantation in patients with uveitic macular edema: an optical coherence tomography study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the early spectral domain optical coherence tomography changes after fluocinolone implantation in eyes with baseline uveitic macular edema.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with uveitic macular edema and who received fluocinolone implantations by 2 surgeons (R.P.S. and J.E.S.) at the Cole Eye Institute (Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH) from September 2009 to July 2010 were eligible for this study. Best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure, central subfield thickness, cube volume, cube average thickness, and cystoid macular edema grade were recorded before implantation and in the early postoperative period (median: 3 months postimplantation). Changes in these variables were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for paired comparisons of clustered data. P values were 2 sided, and alpha was set at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve eyes of seven patients were included in the study. The median best-corrected visual acuity improved in the early postoperative period after implantation (20/80 before implantation and 20/50 after implantation), but this improvement was not found to be significant (P = 0.12). However, the spectral domain optical coherence tomography measurements-central subfield thickness, cube volume, cube average thickness, and cystoid macular edema grade-were all significantly reduced (median changes: -234 μm [P = 0.02], -1 mm [P = 0.04], -39 μm [P = 0.04], and -3 [P = 0.03], respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fluocinolone implantation is associated with a significant reduction in macular edema as measured by spectral domain optical coherence tomography in the early postoperative period, a result that is consistent with the proposed mechanism of the drug.
authors: Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
authors: Bailey Y
authors: BY
authors: Shen
authors: Omar S
authors: OS
authors: Punjabi
authors: Careen Y
authors: CY
authors: Lowder
authors: Jonathan E
authors: JE
authors: Sears
authors: Rishi P
authors: RP
authors: Singh
mesh_terms: D004343:Drug Implants; D005260:Female; D005446:Fluocinolone Acetonide / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D008269:Macular Edema / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014605:Uveitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004343:Drug Implants; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D005446:Fluocinolone Acetonide; C035394:fluocinolone