Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To present an assessment of the subjective responses of patients concerning their quality of life before and after intravitreal triamcinolone injection treatment for macular edema. Methods: Fifty patients were contacted via telephone and asked a standard set of questions between 2 and 3 months after receiving a single intravitreal triamcinolone injection. Each question was rated on a scale of one through five, and patients were asked to select the most appropriate answer. The results for each question were then averaged to obtain an overall opinion on pre and post treatment attitudes. Results: None of the surveyed patients were familiar with intravitreal injections prior to receiving the treatment. Two–thirds of patients reported an increase in binocular vision post injection. However, the degree of visual improvement experienced by one–half of the patients was less than what they expected. Fifty percent of patients felt that they were less often limited in how long they could work or do other activities due to their vision after receiving the triamcinolone injection. The injection caused little or no pain according to two–thirds of the surveyed patients. None or minimal changes were noted in patients’ perception about (a) pain or discomfort in the eye limiting their activity, (b) apprehension of becoming blind, and (c) being restricted to life at home, as a consequence of receiving the injection. Conclusions: In this series of surveyed patients, we found that intravitreal triamcinolone injection provided a subjective improvement in vision and some qualities of life in a majority of patients. Although equivocally meeting visual improvement expectations, intravitreal triamcinolone injection is, according to a majority of patients, a relatively painless and well–tolerated treatment option for subjective improvement in cases of macular edema.
Keywords: injection • macula/fovea • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology