Purpose: Define the profile of ophthalmologists dedicated to retinal pathologies Methods: After approval of the Spanish Society of Retina and Vitreous(SERV) a data base of professionals dedicated to treat retinal diseases was created from three sources: members of SERV, V‐R specialist according to pharmaceutics companies and suggested by well known V‐R specialists. A confidential questionnaire was sent. We used Chi‐squared and Fisher’s Exact test for qualitative variables and non‐parametric Kruskall Wallis test for quantitative variables Results: 490 possible V‐R specialist were identified, obtaining 248 answers. The answers belonged to teaching hospitals 61%, non‐teaching hospitals 22%, teaching private institute 5.4%, non‐teaching private institute 11%. The mean population covered by public centres was 230.000 habitants, with a mean of 14.5 ophthalmologists and a median of 4 V‐R specialists per centre. 82% of V‐R specialist finished their training after 1980. 93.5% received V‐R training: residency (81%), medical retina master(13.8%), surgical retina master(11.6%) and from expert colleagues(63.3%). The preferential clinical practise was: medical retina 23%, surgical retina 12%, both 65%. 93% attend V‐R special consultation every week. 22% practice retinal surgeries, 14% cataract surgeries and 62% both. 79% practice vitrectomies(80/year), 84% intravitreal injections(2/week), 45% photodynamic therapy PTD(2.5/week) and 88% prescribe PDT(1/week). 90% is member of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology Conclusions: We approximately know the number of ophthalmologists dedicated to retinal pathologies, their specialist training and their clinical activity

Purpose: To asses the efficacy of intravitreal Triamcinolone Acetonide (TA) in diffuse diabetic macular edema (DME) refractory to laser coagulation Methods: Descriptive, retrospective, non randomized study without control group done on 35 eyes of 27 patients with DME and negative dexamethasone test, treated with 4mg intravitreal TA between January‐2006 and March‐2007. Variation in Visual Acuity (VA)(Snellen Chart) was considered as main outcome, and angiographic (AFG) edema was consider as secondary outcome. The statistic analysis was performed by contingency tables, Chi‐square test and Fisher exact test Results: The median basal VA was 0.16, observing an improvement of two or more lines in 31.4% at first month post op and 34.3% at the end of follow up(7 months). Although the edema was resolved in 42.9% at the first month by AFG, it persisted in 77.1% by the end of the study. A mayor effect was observed in patients treated with insulin+oral hypoglucemiants+diet(p:0.021), cystic CSME(p:0.018), or previous grill laser(p:0.055).A statistically significant relation was observed between VA and the absent of edema in the AFG. Three eyes developed ocular hypertension during the first 24 hours and 4 eyes at first month, all them controlled by topical treatment. No endophthalmitis was observed Conclusions: Results were similar to bibliography. A strong relation was observed between VA and AFG during entire follow up. Systemic treatment with diet‐insulin‐oral hypoglucemiants seemed to induce a better respond to the intravitreal TA in the control of DME