advertisement
 
 

Within the last five years, a major change in a paradigm has  taken place now to consider the vitreous cavity as a drug reservoir for treatment  of intraocular diseases like macular disorders (and potentially the glaucomas).  Triamcinolone acetonide has been the first drug which has intravitreally been applied  worldwide in a large scale. Since it is a steroid, one of the two major side-effects  of intravitreal triamcinolone is a rise in intraocular pressure. Previous studies  have shown that about 40% of patients receiving intravitreal triamcinolone react  with a modest to severe elevation in IOP up to values as high as 60 mmHg. It has  remained unclear whether the IOP rise already occurs in the first week after the  injection so that the patients have to be checked already shortly after the injection. The study by Lee et al. (217) clearly  shows that a triamcinolone induced IOP elevation may not be expected within the  first week after the intervention. Although it is just a  retrospective case-series study, the results of  the study by Lee and colleagues clearly indicate that the steroid induced major  rise in IOP usually occurs later than one week after the procedure. The results may have  implications for the routinely taking care of 
 patients receiving an intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide.