Immune modulator therapy compared with vitrectomy for management of complicated intermediate uveitis: a prospective,...

To compare the benefits and side effects of pars plana vitrectomy with those of systemic immune modulator therapy for patients with complicated intermediate uveitis.

This prospective clinical trial enrolled patients with recurrent intermediate uveitis who exhibited minimal improvement of visual acuity, despite injections of periocular steroids. Twenty patients were randomized to the pars plana vitrectomy group or oral steroid and cyclosporine-A group (10 eyes of 10 patients per group). Follow-up was performed for 24 months to study changes in visual acuity, binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy score, fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography findings.

Visual acuity (logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution) significantly improved from 0.71 to 0.42 (p=0.001) in the surgical group, whereas it improved from 0.68 to 0.43 (p=0.001) in the immune modulator therapy group. Seven patients (70%) in the surgical group gained ≥2 lines, and six patients (60%) in the immune modulator therapy group gained ≥2 lines (p=0.970). Fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography studies showed that six of seven pars plana vitrectomy patients who had cystoid macular edema experienced improvement, whereas two patients with diffuse macular edema did not experience improvement. In the immune modulator therapy group, three of six patients with cystoid macular edema did not experience improvement, whereas two patients with diffuse macular edema experienced improvement.

Pars plana vitrectomy and immune modulator therapy resulted in significant improvement in visual function in patients with persistent inflammation secondary to chronic intermediate uveitis. Despite this success, there remains a need for the determination of optimal indications for the use of each modality. Immune modulator therapy was successful for the treatment of diffuse macular edema associated with chronic intermediate uveitis, whereas pars plana vitrectomy was not.