Effects of a steroid eye drop (difluprednate ophthalmic emulsion) on retinal pigment
Epitheliopathy

Saichi Abe
Teiko Yamamoto
Yutaka Kaneko
Hidetoshi Yamashita

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Yamagata University School of Medicine.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of treatment with a newly developed steroid eye drop (difluprednate ophthalmic emulsion 0.05%) for early-stage of retinal pigment epitheliopathy.

Patients:

Case1: A 21-year-old female was diagnosed as punctuate inner choroidopahty. The visual acuity in her right eye was reduced due to submacular choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and macular edema. She was treated with difluprednate ophthalmic emulsion 0.05% (Durezol TM, Sirion Therapeutics Inc., USA) 4 times dairy for the first month and then twice daily for 2 months. After treatment, her best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was improved from 0.7 to 1.2.

Case2: A 65- year-old male was diagnosed as multifocal choroiditis with panuveitis. He suffered from relative scotoma of the center of the right visual field, and OCT examination revealed the submacular serous retinal detachment in the right eye. He was treated by diflprednate ophthalmic emulsion 0.05% with the protocol with Case 1, and, the subretinal fluid was absorbed and his centrol relative scotoma decreased.

Conclusion: Corticosteroid ophthalmic preparation (difluprednate ophthalmic emulsion 0.05%) appears to be effective and useful for the treatment of inflammatory lesions in retinal epitheliopathy.