History of diagnosis and treatment of cystoid macular edema

Abstract

AbstractFollowing the introduction of the ophthalmoscope by Helmholtz in 1851, very early descriptions of macular edema were reported by Jaeger in 1856 and Nettleship in 1872. Macular disease following cataract surgery was described by Hruby in 1950, Irvine in 1953, Chandler in 1954, Nicholls in 1954, and Maumenee in 1957, among others. The introduction of fluorescein angiography by Novotny and Alvis in 1961, with subsequent modifications by David, Sever and Justice, greatly facilitated the diagnosis of this condition. Using fluorescein angiography, Gass and Norton reported 44 patients with “cystoid macular edema” (CME) in 1966, which appears to be the first use of this term. The eponym “Irvine‐Gass syndrome” appears to have been published first in 1971. In 1991, Puliafito and colleagues reported the first use of optical coherence tomography, and published one case of postoperative CME in 1995.Treatments for CME developed as the pathophysiology became better understood. Early reported treatments included oral vasodilators (Laws, 1964), oral prednisone (Gehring, 1968), and pulsed ruby photocoagulation (Zweng and colleagues, 1968). Alternatively, other investigators recommended observation for at least 12 months, including Gass and Norton in 1969 and Jacobson and Dellaporta in 1974. Miyake reported good results with topical indomethacin prophylaxis in 1977; other investigators subsequently reported benefit with topical or oral indomethacin, including Yannuzzi and colleagues in 1979 and Kraff and colleagues in 1982. Various surgical factors, including posterior (rather than anterior) chamber intraocular lenses, were found to be beneficial during the 1980s. Multiple topical medications, including prednisolone acetate, flurbiprofen, ketorolac, diclofenac, and others, were investigated in the 1990s and 2000s. Gaudric and colleagues published treatment of CME with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide in 2003.At the present time, the use of topical corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory agents is widely used in the prophylaxis and treatment of CME, but there is relatively little evidence from randomized clinical trials to support this practice. In both the US and Europe, no agent has achieved regulatory approval for the treatment of postoperative CME; all agents are used “off‐label”.