Management of autoimmune retinopathy treated with intravitreal dexamethasone implant

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical outcomes of autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) in the patients treated with intravitreal dexamethasone implant (IDI). METHOD: Twenty-one eyes of 11 AIR patients treated with at least 1 injection of IDI were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical outcomes before and after treatment, including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optic coherence tomography (OCT), fundus autofluorescence (FAF), full-field electroretinography (ff-ERG), and visual field (VF) at last visit within 6 and/or 12 months, were recorded. RESULTS: Among all the patients, 3 had cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR) and 8 had non-paraneoplastic-AIR (npAIR) with mean followed up of 8.52 ± 3.03 months (range 4–12 months). All patients achieved improved or stable BCVA within 6 and/or 12 months after the treatment. Cystoid macular edema (CME) in 2 eyes and significant retinal inflammation in 4 eyes were markedly resolved after single injection. Central retinal thickness (CFT) in all eyes without CME, ellipsoid zone (EZ) on OCT in 71.4% of eyes, ERG response in 55% of eyes, and VF in 50% of eyes were stable or improved within 6 months after treatment. At last visit within 12 months, both BCVA and CFT remained stable in the eyes treated with either single or repeated IDI; however, progression of EZ loss and damage of ERG response occurred in some patients with single IDI. CONCLUSION: Clinical outcomes, including BCVA and parameters of OCT, ERG, and VF, were stable or improved after IDI in a majority of AIR patients. Local treatment of AIR with IDI was a good option to initiate the management or an alternative for the patients’ refractory to the systemic therapy but with limited side effect. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00417-022-05941-x.