Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the effect of macrolide antibiotic treatments on the visual acuity in patients who suffer from severe postsurgical intraocular lens precipitates.
Methods :
The present study examined 13 eyes of 8 patients (7 females and 1 male, mean age: 68 ± 12.3 years) who underwent phacoemulsification + intraocular lens implantation (5 patients and 9 eyes) or pars plana vitrectomy + phacoemulsification + intraocular lens suture implantation (3 patients and 4 eyes) between April 2017 and February 2018 at Osaka University Hospital. Inclusion criteria included slit lamp examination findings that showed intraocular lens precipitate and cell infiltration in the aqueous humor in patients suffering from bronchiolitis who were treated with 400 mg/day of clarithromycin. Comparisons of the precipitation on the intraocular lens, visual acuity and area under the log contrast sensitivity function before and after treatment.
Results :
There was a dramatic reduction in the precipitation on the intraocular lens at 1 month after treatment. Moreover, there was also significant improvement found for area under the log contrast sensitivity function (p=0.02). However, there was no improvement (no differences) in the visual acuity.
Conclusions :
Oral administration of clarithromycin was able to improve visual function, especially contrast sensitivity, due to the subsequent reductions in the precipitate on the intraocular lens. Therefore, clarithromycin may be one of the potential candidates that can be used for treating intraocular lens precipitation after transplantation.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.