Radiation Macular Edema After Ru-106 Plaque Brachytherapy For Choroidal Melanoma Resolved By An Intravitreal Dexamethasone 0.7-Mg Implant

Purpose: To report the effective treatment of radiation macular edema following ruthenium106 plaque brachytherapy for a choroidal melanoma with a dexamethasone 0.7-mg (Ozurdex (R)) intravitreal implant.Methods: An interventional case report with optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans.Results: A 65-year-old Caucasian woman was suffering from radiation macular edema following ruthenium-106 plaque brachytherapy for a choroidal melanoma on her left eye. She had undergone one intravitreal injection of 0.5 mg bevacizumab (Avastin (R), Genentech/Roche) in the following months without functional or anatomical improvement. Seven months after the development of radiation macular edema, she received a single intravitreal injection of dexamethasone 0.7 mg (Ozurdex). Four weeks following the injection, her best-corrected visual acuity improved from 0.3 to 0.5. Radiation macular edema resolved with a reduction of central retinal thickness from 498 mu m before Ozurdex injection to 224 mu m after Ozurdex injection, as measured by OCT scan.Conclusion: Dexamethasone 0.7 mg (Ozurdex) has proven to be an effective treatment option in retinal vein occlusion and noninfectious uveitis. It can also be considered as off-label treatment in radiation macular edema following ruthenium-106 plaque brachytherapy for a choroidal melanoma.