Incidence of postoperative cystoid macular edema by a single surgeon.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the clinical and angiographic incidence of cystoid macular edema (CME) after cataract surgery, and to determine the impact of intraoperative triamcinolone acetonide.

METHODS

This is a prospective, single-center trial looking at 81 eyes of 61 patients who underwent clear-cornea incision phacoemulsification with lens implantation under topical anesthesia by a single surgeon. Outcome measures included clinical and angiographic CME, the impact of operative time, medications, and systemic disease on the presence of CME.

RESULTS

Eight eyes (9.87%) demonstrated angiographic CME at the one-week and six-week follow-up visits. Two eyes showed evidence of clinical CME (2.46%) on examination. Subjects with diabetes had an increased risk of angiographic CME.

CONCLUSION

The incidence of clinically significant and angiographic CME in this study is confirmatory of previous studies in the literature. The use of intraoperative subconjunctival triamcinolone acetonide did not appear to significantly reduce the development of post-operative CME.