Injecting a corticosteroid, triamcinolone, directly into the eye may slow the progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy that is a complication of diabetes that results in blindness, according to researchers led by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute.

It was remarked that steroids may increase the risk of glaucoma and cataract and laser photocoagulation is the best treatment option till the time a new option is discovered, which has the good effects of steroids, minus the damage.

From News-Medical.Net:

“Steroid treatment worked, but because of safety issues, cannot be recommended routinely at this time,” says Neil M. Bressler, the James P. Gills Professor of Ophthalmology and chief of the Retina Division of the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, chair of the government-sponsored Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network. “It is a condition that can be treated safely and effectively with lasers.”

The study, published in the December issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, described and compared one of two treatments on 840 eyes from 693 men and women between July 2004 and May 2006. The subjects, about evenly divided between men and women with an average age of 63, had diabetic retinopathy with macular edema, a swelling of the central portion of the retina that’s caused by leakage of fluid.

Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is marked by the growth of new and unwanted blood vessels on the optic nerve in the back of the eye (which communicates information from the retina to the brain) or another area of the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye. Despite advances in treating both diabetes and its complications, about 700,000 Americans have proliferative diabetic retinopathy and 63,000 new cases develop each year.

According to Bressler, lead author of the study, some evidences were found suggesting that steroids may possibly improve vision outcomes from diabetic macular edema (DME).

Tags:  corticosteroid, diabetic macular edema, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, Steroids, triamcinolone

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