Factors influencing visual acuity after intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide as treatment of exudative age related macular degeneration.

AIM To evaluate factors influencing change in visual acuity (VA) after intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide as treatment of exudative age related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS This prospective, interventional, comparative non-randomised clinical case series study included 94 patients (99 eyes) showing progressive exudative AMD with occult (n = 61 eyes), minimally classic (n = 18), predominantly classic (n = 1), or totally classic (n = 8) subfoveal neovascularisation. Mean follow up was 8.5 (SD 4.7) months (median, 7.3 months; range 3.1-24.5 months). All patients received an intravitreal injection of 20-25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide. RESULTS An increase in best VA of at least one line on the Snellen charts was found in 63 (63.1%) eyes. Correspondingly, mean VA increased significantly (p<0.001) from 0.17 (SD 0.13) to 0.22 (SD 0.17) after the injection. Postoperative increase in VA was significantly (p<0.001) and negatively correlated with preoperative VA (correlation coefficient, -0.49). Gain in visual acuity was significantly (p = 0.009) higher if preoperative visual acuity was less than 0.08 (gain: 3.2 (SD 2.9) Snellen lines) than if preoperative VA ranged between 0.08 and 0.20 (gain: 1.2 (SD 2.2) Snellen lines). Change in VA was significantly (p = 0.016) less if preoperative VA was higher than 0.20 (change: -0.8 (SD 3.4) Snellen lines). Maximal gain in VA was significantly (p = 0.035) larger in eyes with retinal pigment epithelium detachment than in eyes with minimally classic subfoveal neovascularisation. This was statistically independent of age (p = 0.99), refractive error (p = 0.88), sex (p = 0.92), and duration of follow up (p = 0.46). CONCLUSIONS Gain in VA after intravitreal injection of 20-25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide is significantly and negatively correlated with preoperative VA. It is significantly larger in eyes with retinal pigment epithelium detachment than in eyes with minimally classic subfoveal neovascularisation.