Iris retraction syndrome (IRS) is an uncommon condition caused by retinal detachment that is characterized by back bowing of the peripheral iris, leading to a deep anterior chamber. It is commonly ...associated with ocular hypotony, ciliochoroidal detachment, and anterior proliferative vitreoretinopathy. We describe a case of a 66-year-old man presenting with 2 weeks of right eye pain, redness, and iris heterochromia. The patient was diagnosed with IRS secondary to a chronic retinal detachment. Initial management with topical steroids and mydriasis allowed resolution of the iris retraction and heterochromia, normalization of intraocular pressure, and improvement of choroidal detachment. Subsequent vitrectomy with endolaser and oil tamponade led to successful detachment repair. Initial pharmacologic management allows a more controlled approach to the repair of retinal detachment associated with IRS. The patient’s presentation is consistent with the hydrodynamic hypothesis of IRS.
To evaluate the rate of, risk factors for, and outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with intermediate, posterior, and panuveitides treated with systemic corticosteroids and immunosuppression.
...Cohort study of participants from a randomized clinical trial.
A multicenter clinical trial with extended follow-up comprised the study setting. From the cohort of participants assigned to systemic therapy in the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Trial and Follow-up Study, 125 phakic eyes of 74 patients with intermediate, posterior, or panuveitides treated with systemic therapy were included. The main outcome measures were cataract surgery and visual acuity after cataract surgery.
The cumulative incidence of cataract surgery was 43% at 7 years of follow-up, and the risk did not plateau. Risk factors for cataract surgery included age >50 years (hazard ratio HR 2.86, 95% CI 1.52, 5.42; P = .001), topical corticosteroid use (time-updated HR 3.13, 95% CI 1.42, 6.94; P = .005), glaucoma medication use (HR 2.75, 95% CI 1.38, 5.47; P = .004), and possibly history of anterior chamber inflammation (HR 1.90, 95% CI 0.95, 3.84; P = .07). Median gain in acuity and median best corrected visual acuity 1 year after cataract surgery were 4.8 lines and 20/25, respectively, among 42 eyes undergoing cataract surgery with 1-year follow-up data.
Among patients with intermediate, posterior, and panuveitides, treated with oral corticosteroids and immunosuppression, there is a substantial long-term risk of cataract surgery. Visual acuity outcomes after cataract surgery are generally good.
To evaluate the 3-year incremental cost-effectiveness of fluocinolone acetonide implant versus systemic therapy for the treatment of noninfectious intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis.
Randomized, ...controlled, clinical trial.
Patients with active or recently active intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis enrolled in the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment Trial.
Data on cost and health utility during 3 years after randomization were evaluated at 6-month intervals. Analyses were stratified by disease laterality at randomization (31 unilateral vs 224 bilateral) because of the large upfront cost of the implant.
The primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) over 3 years: the ratio of the difference in cost (in United States dollars) to the difference in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Costs of medications, surgeries, hospitalizations, and regular procedures (e.g., laboratory monitoring for systemic therapy) were included. We computed QALYs as a weighted average of EQ-5D scores over 3 years of follow-up.
The ICER at 3 years was $297,800/QALY for bilateral disease, driven by the high cost of implant therapy (difference implant - systemic Δ: $16,900; P < 0.001) and the modest gains in QALYs (Δ = 0.057; P = 0.22). The probability of the ICER being cost-effective at thresholds of $50,000/QALY and $100,000/QALY was 0.003 and 0.04, respectively. The ICER for unilateral disease was more favorable, namely, $41,200/QALY at 3 years, because of a smaller difference in cost between the 2 therapies (Δ = $5300; P = 0.44) and a larger benefit in QALYs with the implant (Δ = 0.130; P = 0.12). The probability of the ICER being cost-effective at thresholds of $50,000/QALY and $100,000/QALY was 0.53 and 0.74, respectively.
Fluocinolone acetonide implant therapy was reasonably cost-effective compared with systemic therapy for individuals with unilateral intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis but not for those with bilateral disease. These results do not apply to the use of implant therapy when systemic therapy has failed or is contraindicated. Should the duration of implant effect prove to be substantially >3 years or should large changes in therapy pricing occur, the cost-effectiveness of implant versus systemic therapy would need to be reevaluated.
To evaluate long-term risk and outcomes of glaucoma in eyes with intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis managed with systemic or fluocinolone acetonide (0.59 mg, “implant”) therapy.
Prospective ...Follow-up of the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Clinical Trial Cohort.
Patients with intermediate, posterior, or panuveitis randomized to implant or systemic therapy (corticosteroid plus immunosuppression in >90%) were followed prospectively for glaucoma incidence and outcome.
Among 405 uveitic at-risk eyes of 232 patients (median follow-up = 6.9 years), 40% (79/196) of eyes assigned and treated with implant and 8% (17/209) of eyes assigned and treated with systemic therapy (censoring eyes receiving an implant on implantation) developed glaucoma (hazard ratio HR = 5.9, 95% confidence interval CI 3.2, 10.8; P < .001). Adjustment for intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation during follow-up only partially mitigated the association of implant treatment with glaucoma incidence: HR = 3.1 (95% CI 1.6, 6.0); P = .001. Among 112 eyes of 83 patients developing glaucoma, the 5-year cumulative incidence following diagnosis of sustained (2 or more consecutive visits) worsening of mean deviation by ≥6 dB was 20% (95% CI 12%, 33%); 5-year cumulative incidence of sustained worsening of cup-to-disc ratio by ≥0.2 was 26% (95% CI 17%, 39%).
The implant has substantially higher risk of glaucoma than systemic therapy, a difference not entirely explained by posttreatment IOP elevation. Management of IOP elevation was effective in preventing worsening of glaucoma for the large majority of cases, but even under expert clinical management, some glaucoma worsened. Uveitis cases should be monitored carefully for IOP elevation and glaucoma indefinitely.
Purpose To review the available information on classification of diabetic macular edema (DME) as focal or diffuse. Design Interpretive essay. Methods Literature review and interpretation. Results The ...terms focal diabetic macular edema and diffuse diabetic macular edema frequently are used without clear definitions. Published definitions often use different examination methods and often are inconsistent. Evaluating published information on the prevalence of focal and diffuse DME, the responses of focal and diffuse DME to treatments, and the importance of focal and diffuse DME in assessing prognosis is hindered because the terms are used inconsistently. A newer vocabulary may be more constructive, one that describes discrete components of the concepts such as extent and location of macular thickening, involvement of the center of the macula, quantity and pattern of lipid exudates, source of fluorescein leakage, and regional variation in macular thickening and that distinguishes these terms from the use of the term focal when describing one type of photocoagulation technique. Developing methods for assessing component variables that can be used in clinical practice and establishing reproducibility of the methods are important tasks. Conclusions Little evidence exists that characteristics of DME described by the terms focal and diffuse help to explain variation in visual acuity or response to treatment. It is unresolved whether a concept of focal and diffuse DME will prove clinically useful despite frequent use of the terms when describing management of DME. Further studies to address the issues are needed.
To assess the visual outcomes of cataract surgery in eyes that received fluocinolone acetonide implant or systemic therapy with oral corticosteroids and immunosuppression during the Multicenter ...Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Trial.
Nested prospective cohort study of patients enrolled in a randomized clinical trial.
Patients that underwent cataract surgery during the first 2 years of follow-up in the MUST Trial.
Visual outcomes of cataract surgery were evaluated 3, 6, and 9 months after surgery using logarithmic visual acuity charts. Change in visual acuity over time was assessed using a mixed-effects model.
Best-corrected visual acuity.
After excluding eyes that underwent cataract surgery simultaneously with implant surgery, among the 479 eyes in the MUST Trial, 117 eyes (28 eyes in the systemic, 89 in the implant group) in 82 patients underwent cataract surgery during the first 2 years of follow-up. Overall, visual acuity increased by 23 letters from the preoperative visit to the 3-month visit (95% confidence interval CI, 17-29 letters; P < 0.001) and was stable through 9 months of follow-up. Eyes presumed to have a more severe cataract, as measured by inability to grade vitreous haze, gained an additional 42 letters (95% CI, 34-56 letters; P < 0.001) beyond the 13-letter gain in eyes that had gradable vitreous haze before surgery (95% CI, 9-18 letters; P < 0.001) 3 months after surgery, making up for an initial difference of -45 letters at the preoperative visit (95% CI, -56 to -34 letters; P < 0.001). Black race, longer time from uveitis onset, and hypotony were associated with worse preoperative visual acuity (P < 0.05), but did not affect postsurgical recovery (P > 0.05, test of interaction). After adjusting for other risk factors, there was no significant difference in the improvement in visual acuity between the 2 treatment groups (implant vs. systemic therapy, 2 letters; 95% CI, -10 to 15 letters; P = 0.70).
Cataract surgery resulted in substantial, sustained, and similar visual acuity improvement in the eyes of patients with uveitis treated with the fluocinolone acetonide implant or standard systemic therapy.
Purpose:
This interventional case report discusses inadvertent bilateral temporal globe penetration during placement of intramuscular wire electrodes to the lateral rectus muscles for intraoperative ...neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) via electromyography.
Methods:
An 11-year-old girl underwent surgical resection of massive medulloblastoma within the fourth ventricle, requiring IONM. Placement of an electrode in each lateral rectus muscle resulted in bilateral globe penetration, with choroidal rupture, retinal tears, and hemorrhage.
Results:
Sterile needle perforation of the globe did not result in endophthalmitis. Encircling laser retinopexy was performed, and no retinal detachments occurred.
Conclusions:
Insertion of needle electrodes without guidance imaging can potentially lead to globe penetration and incorrect electrode placement. Direct visualization with ultrasound, electromyography, or other advanced image-guided systems may offer a safe solution for electrode placement to avoid injury. Verbal patients should be made aware of postoperative warning signs of globe penetration. For nonverbal patients, a postoperative dilated exam is warranted.
Purpose To validate a photographic vitreous haze grading technique using a 9-step logarithmic scale in patients enrolled in a randomized, controlled clinical trial in uveitis. Design Retrospective ...study of clinical trials methodology. Methods Setting: University-based department of ophthalmology. Study population: Baseline fundus photographs of patients with intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, or panuveitis enrolled in the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment trial. Observational procedure: Grading of vitreous haze using a previously described photographic scale. Regrading of a subset of photographs to assess intraobserver agreement. Main outcome measures: Interobserver and intraobserver intraclass correlation for photographic haze grading, and correlation between photographic and clinical vitreous haze scores, assessment of the clinical findings that significantly affect the photographic haze score. Results Vitreous haze was graded in 271 eyes (142 patients) by 3 postgraduate ophthalmologists. The interobserver and intraobserver intraclass correlations were excellent, with correlation coefficients between 0.84 and 0.93. There was moderately strong correlation between the photographic and clinical vitreous haze scores ( r = 0.51; P < .001), with significant differences among the mean and median photographic haze scores for the 3 lowest clinical grades of haze, 0, 1+, and 2+. Other parameters that correlated with photographic vitreous haze score included visual acuity of 20/50 or worse ( P = .003), degrees of posterior synechiae ( P < .001), lens abnormality ( P = .023) or posterior capsule obscuration ( P = .001), and amount of anterior vitreous cell ( P = .002). Conclusions Photographic grading of vitreous haze with a 9-step logarithmic scale is a highly reproducible methodology that may be adaptable to use in future clinical trials.
The purpose of this article is to describe a novel surgical technique for the management of large suprachoroidal hemorrhages associated with the insertion of glaucoma seton devices.
In this ...interventional case series, the authors describe six eyes of six patients who had management of suprachoroidal hemorrhage with pars plana choroidal drainage along with simultaneous insertion of viscoelastic into the posterior segment. All patients had a median of 8-month postoperative follow-up.
Five of the 6 patients had useful final vision ranging from 20/40 to 20/200. In all cases, the postoperative intraocular pressures did not increase beyond 28 mmHg and responded to aqueous humor suppressants.
As suprachoroidal hemorrhage can be a devastating complication of glaucoma surgery, the authors report a relatively straightforward surgical technique that can restore ambulatory vision in a high proportion of patients.
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