Zaidi FH, Ansari E. New treatments for diabetic macular edema. World J Ophthalmol 2015; 5(2): 45-54 [DOI: 10.5318/wjo.v5.i2.45]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Farhan Husain Zaidi, PhD, FRCSs, FRCOphth, Department of Ophthalmology, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Southwick Hill Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3LY, United Kingdom. fhz12@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Ophthalmology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Ophthalmol. May 12, 2015; 5(2): 45-54 Published online May 12, 2015. doi: 10.5318/wjo.v5.i2.45
New treatments for diabetic macular edema
Farhan Husain Zaidi, Ejaz Ansari
Farhan Husain Zaidi, Department of Ophthalmology, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3LY, United Kingdom
Farhan Husain Zaidi, Ejaz Ansari, Eye, Ear and Mouth Unit, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Maidstone, Kent ME16 9QQ, United Kingdom
Ejaz Ansari, Department of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NH, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Zaidi FH performed the literature searches, reviewed the studies and current management options, wrote the paper, and under the supervision of Ansari E performed the work on long-term outcomes of intravitreal triamcinolone; Ansari E contributed to the section on protein kinase C inhibitors, current management options for diabetic macular edema and supervised Zaidi FH on the work on outcomes of triamcinolone.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Farhan Husain Zaidi, PhD, FRCSs, FRCOphth, Department of Ophthalmology, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Southwick Hill Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3LY, United Kingdom. fhz12@hotmail.com
Telephone: +44-2392-286000 Fax: +44-2392-286440
Received: November 30, 2014 Peer-review started: December 1, 2014 First decision: January 20, 2015 Revised: February 10, 2015 Accepted: April 1, 2015 Article in press: April 7, 2015 Published online: May 12, 2015 Processing time: 170 Days and 9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Current evidence suggests the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents aflibercept and ranibizumab are the most effective agents for most patients with diabetic macular edema. Aflibercept may be more effective when vision is very low. Other drugs retain niche roles including bevacizumab owing to lower costs, steroids like triamcinolone which can be effective many years later, dexamethasone and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like nepafenac. Also considered are anti-tumour necrosis factor agents like infliximab, anti-interleukins like canakinumab, anti-inflammatories including minocycline, rapamycin (sirolimus) and protein kinase C inhibitors midostaurin and ruboxistaurin. Fluocinolone implants, anti-VEGF agents bevasiranib and pegaptinib, cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors like celecoxib, phospholipase A2 inhibitors and recombinant erythropoietin are discussed.
