A Single Dose Intracameral Triamcinolone Injection Following Phacoemulsification

Abstract

Background: The most frequent cause of treatable blindness in the world is cataract. The gold standard procedure for cataract surgery is phacoemulsification. Steroids are used to alleviate postoperative inflammation. Steroid administration can be done in a variety of ways. Objective: to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of 1mg/0.01 triamcinolone acetonide (TA) to control inflammation in eyes undergoing cataract extraction with phacoemulsification. Patients and methods: It is a prospective non-randomized interventional study. It included 30 patients who are undergoing phacoemulsification surgery. Preoperative evaluation included visual-acuity testing, external-eye examination, slitlamp biomicroscopy, tonometry, and dilated-fundus examination. At the end of the phacoemulsification, triamcinolone (TA) 1mg /0.01 was injected into the anterior chamber. Patients were examined on the first day postoperative, one week one month and 3 months after surgery. Postoperative evaluations included Snellen visual acuity (VA), slit-lamp examination, and IOP measurement. Corneal edema, anterior chamber cells and conjunctival hyperemia were checked. Results: There was no significant difference in the IOP before and after TA injection. While, there were significant differences in corneal edema, AC cells, conjunctival hyperemia and dryness from first day postoperative and through the study period. Conclusion: A single dose intracameral triamcinolone injection, instead of topical steroid, was found to be safe, effective and avoids the side effect of topical steroid