Acetazolamide for treatment of chronic macular oedema

ABSTRACT

Macular oedma is one of the causes of diminution of vision in various diseases. Several methods of treatment were tried for treatment including both medical and surgical techniques. In this study, ten patients with chronic macular oedema were treated by acetazolamide, a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. The dose was 250 mg per day in two divided doses. The dose was maintained according to the response of the patients. Three patients showed significant improvement with complete resolution of the macular oedema after two weeks of treatment with improvement of visual acuity. Another three patients showed subjective improvement of their acuity, but with minimal changes in their macular oedema evidenced by fluorescein angiography. In another three patients there was no effect of treatment. In the last patient, acetazolamide had to be stopped completely after four days due to side-effects. Thus, acetazolamide produced therapeutic response in about 60% of cases. It may be beneficial for treatment of some cases of chronic macular oedema