Abstract
Purpose :
There is little or no published data directly comparing the outcomes of ILUVIEN® and DEX in DME patients. Data from real-life practice does, however, allow ILUVIEN® to be compared with DEX following its prior use. This comparison is presented in the current case series.
Methods :
Monocentric audit involving a pool of 25 patients (33 eyes) with DME and treated with a single ILUVIEN implant between October 2013 and September 2016. From this cohort, 8 eyes (7 patients) had been treated with at least one DEX prior to intravitreal injection of ILUVIEN®. The following parameters were measured in these patients: visual acuity [VA]; central retinal thickness [CRT]; and, intraocular pressure [IOP]. For both DEX and ILUVIEN® peak changes in VA and CRT (and their timings) were calculated. The last observation point after ILUVIEN® treatment was also measured to assess sustained changes in VA and CRT. Values are reported as means throughout.
Results :
The mean age of the 7 patients was 60.7 years and 6 of the 8 eyes were pseudophakic at baseline. The peak decrease in CRT following DEX occurred at day 82, decreasing from 561 to 344 µm and then rebounding to 500 µm prior to the administration of ILUVIEN®. The mean period between DEX and ILUVIEN® injections was 277 (range, 107 to 714) days. The injection of ILUVIEN® lead to a peak CRT reduction from 500 to 332 µm and a sustained decrease (359 µm) at the last measurement point. During the respective treatment periods, the peak gain in VA was +6 letters with DEX and +8 letters with ILUVIEN®, and at the last measurement point for ILUVIEN® there was a sustained gain of +4 letters. Three eyes had initiation of IOP-lowering medication, two of which had a history of IOP-related events.
Conclusions :
Single injection of DEX and ILUVIEN® implants led to similar improvements in peak CRT and VA, but the effects achieved with DEX were not sustained whereas they were with ILUVIEN.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.