Prophylaxis for clinical macular oedema after phacoemulsification
Reviewed by Brian Ang

The authors report on a retrospective cohort study looking at three different prophylaxis methods for macular oedema after cataract surgery: 1) Topical prednisolone acetate (PA) alone; 2) Topical PA in combination with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID); 3) Intraoperative subconjunctival injection of 2mg triamcinolone acetonide (TA). Inclusion criteria were reduced vision to 6/12 or worse and evidence of macular oedema on optical coherence tomography (OCT) five to 120 days after cataract surgery. The incidence of macular oedema was 0.73% (118 cases out of 16,070 cataract procedures). The authors found that PA in combination NSAID worked best at reducing the risk of macular oedema after surgery. Intraocular pressure spikes were not statistically significantly different among all three groups. Interesting results, but this requires additional research particularly in stratifying risk levels among cataract surgery patients. 

Comparative effectiveness of three prophylactic strategies to prevent clinical macular edema after phacoemulsification surgery.
Shorstein NH, Liu L, Waxman MD, et al.
OPTHALMOLOGY 
2015;122:2450-6.