Evaluation of Rifampicin in Treatment of Central Serous Chorioretinopathy
Narrative Responses:
Purpose
To evaluate role of oral rifampicin in treatment of central serous chorioretinopathy.
Methods
Short non-comparative interventional case series in which 10 eyes of 10 patients were treated with oral Rifampicin 600mg daily dose over period of 1 month. Visual acuity, slitlamp examination and Optical Coherence Tomography – central macular thickness (CMT) were recorded at presentation, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months. Liver function tests, complete blood count were done for all patients at baseline and end of treatment. Cross-sectional retinal images through the center of the fovea were obtained for all eyes by OCT (3D OCT 2000-TOPCON) during acute and subsequent resolution phases. Comparative CMT/visual acuity graph was charted.
Results
CMT showed reduction in all patients under the study with concurrent improvement in BCVA. The reduction was faster in patients who had massive increase in CMT at presentation. 90% of patients regained BCVA of 6/6 at the end of 1 month, 8% regained BCVA 6/7.5, 2% patients still had positive central scotoma due to either discontinuation of treatment or noncompliance.
Conclusion
Encouraging results in our case series show that oral rifampicin is a safe, effective and viable option to other available treatments for central serous chorioretinopathy.