Long-term Retinal Toxicity of Intravitreal Commercially Available Preserved Triamcinolone Acetonide (Kenalog) in Rabbit Eyes

Abstract

No demonstrable electroretinographic or histologic changes occurred to suggest immediate or delayed widespread retinal toxicity of IVTK.

Intravitreal Triamcinolone

“…Most animal studies did not show significant intraocular toxicity [5,231,232,233,234,235]. As early as 1981, McCuen et al [5] performed intravitreal injections of 1 mg of TA into 1 eye of each of 21 rabbits, whereas the other eye received an injection of an equal volume of saline solution as a control.…”

Triamcinolone acetonide prevents oxidative stress-induced tight junction disruption of retinal pigment epithelial cells

“…In recent years, TA is used with intravitreal or trans-tenon's retrobulber infusion also for the treatment of macular edema [17][18][19][20][21], AMD with [22][23][24] or without [25] photodynamic therapy, serous macular detachment in central retinal vein occlusion, [26] in a combination with vitrectomy [27,28], or with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment for AMD [29]. The efficacy of TA has been well proven from the enormous clinical data, though its side effects [30][31][32] and the reports about its toxicity [33][34][35][36] are to be argued. However, the effects of TA during the healing process and its role in treatment remain to be elucidated.…”

Abstracts

“…In addition it has been demonstrated that periocular corticosteroids can reduce the severity of experimental PVR [Rubsamen and Cousins, 1997]. Laboratory work has also demonstrated that triamcinolone appears to have no significant retinal toxicity [Albini et al, 2007] although in vitro it may be toxic to proliferating retinal cells [Narayanan et al, 2006]. Clinically intravitreal triamcinolone has recently been extensively used to treat macular oedema, intraocular inflammation and subretinal neovascularisation without demonstrable retinal toxicity but with a notable incidence of raised intraocular pressure and cataract [reviewed by Pathamanthan and Reck, 2006].…”