Objective: To investigate the influences of intra-vitreal ranibizumab (IVR) monotherapy and IVR+intra-vitreal triamcinolon (IVTA) combination therapy on visual acuity (VA) and central foveal thickness (CFT) in treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

Materials and Methods: 52 eyes of 37 patients who had clinically significant DME were included in the study. All patients were initially administered 0.5 mg/0.05 ml ranibizumab via intra-vitreal route. Following 2 ranibizumab injections unresponsed cases were administered IVR+IVTA combination therapy. Visual acuity and CFT values compared before the injection, and at 1, 3 and 6th months after the injection.

Results: While mean visual acuity was 0.68±0.42 logMAR before the injection. A statistically significant increase was detected in visual acuity at the first and the third months as compared to pre-injection values (0.05). Although visual acuity increased also at the sixth month, the difference between groups was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Mean CFT value was 557.4±157.7 μm before the injection. A statistically significant decrease was detected at the controls of month 1, 3 and 6 as compared to pre-operative CFT (p<0.05). Mean VA was found to be 0,60±0,41 logMar and 0.58±0.38 logMar, respectively when the patients who were applied IVR and IVR+IVTA combination therapy were compared with regard to month 6 results; and mean CFT values were found to be 419.35±205.5 μm and 487.0±215.5 μm, respectively. No statistically significant difference was observed between two groups (p>0.05).

Conclusion: IVR+IVTA combination therapy may be an alternative method in resistant DME cases together with intra-vitreal ranibizumab monotherapy.