Dexamethasone Intravitreal Implant for Treatment of Patients With Recalcitrant Macular Edema Resulting From Irvine-Gass Syndrome

PURPOSE. To evaluate the effectiveness of a single intravitreal injection of dexamethasone implant, over 6 months in patients with recalcitrant CME due to Irvine-Gass syndrome. METHODS. Retrospective review of the medical records of nine patients with refractory macular edema (ME) due to Irvine-Gass syndrome, who underwent a single intravitreal injection of dexamethasone implant, Ozurdex, between November 2010 and January 2012, at the Instituto de Microcirurgia Ocular, Barcelona, Spain. All patients underwent a complete ophthalmic evaluation, including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) using standardized ETDRS charts, tonometry, fluorescein angiography, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with foveal thickness (FT) measurement. RESULTS. The mean duration of CME before treatment with Ozurdex was 9.1 months (range, 6-13 months). At baseline, the mean FT was 542.22 +/- 134.78 mu m. Mean (SD) values of FT did decrease to 350.88 +/- 98.71 mu m (P = 0.001) at month 1 and 319.22 +/- 60.96 mu m (P = 0.002) at month 3. Data on the 6-month follow-up showed a mild increase 398.33 +/- 127.89 mu m (P = 0.031). The mean (SD) change from baseline FT was 191.33 mu m (a decrease value of 35%) at month 1, and 223.00 mu m (decrease value of 41%) and 143.89 mu m (decrease value of 26%) at month 3 and month 6, respectively. The baseline BCVA data were 0.62 +/- 0.15 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR). The mean BCVA improved to 0.47 +/- 0.21 logMAR (P = 0.008) and 0.37 +/- 0.24 logMAR (P = 0.001) after month 1 and month 3, respectively. At the last visit (6-month follow-up), the mean BCVA was 0.37 +/- 0.26 logMAR (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS. In this study, both mean FT and mean BCVA had improved from baseline by 1 month after treatment with a dexamethasone implant, and the improvement remained statistically significant throughout the 6-month study.