Treatment of refractory uveitic macular edema with dexamethasone intravitreal implants in a pediatric patient with bilateral granulomatous idiopathic panuveitis: a case report

BACKGROUND: Macular edema is a common complication of uveitis and represents a therapeutic challenge, especially in children. Recently, intravitreal dexamethasone implants have been shown to decrease intraocular inflammation and to control uveitic macular edema in patients with non-infectious intermediate or posterior uveitis. FINDINGS: An 11-year-old boy with bilateral granulomatous idiopathic panuveitis and orbital inflammation experienced macular edema refractory to topical steroids and subcutaneous methotrexate. He was treated with off-label bilateral injections of dexamethasone intravitreal implant. Three months later, his vision had improved from 20/200 in both eyes to 20/30 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left eye. Optical coherence tomography showed complete resolution of the cystoid macular edema and subretinal fluid in both eyes. CONCLUSIONS: This is a rare report of the use of bilateral dexamethasone intravitreal implant in a pediatric patient. The implants achieved complete resolution of the uveitic macular edema with no adverse events 3 months post-implantation.