Abstract
Purpose:
To examine the incidence of blood splatter during intravitreal injections.
Methods:
One vitreoretinal specialist performed 100 consecutive intravitreal injections. After patients' eyes received anesthetic via pledgets soaked in 4% lidocaine and cleaned with betadine swabs, the specialist wore a plastic eyeshield . Once the intravitreal injection was performed, the eyeshield was removed. A new eyeshield was used for each injection. The shields were subsequently dried and stored. Each shield was sprayed with luminol a bioluminescence blood detection system. A questionnaire was provided after each injection for the vitreoretinal specialist asking if there was any intraprocedural blood splatter. One eyeshield was also placed as a control in the procedure room for 1 hour while injections were not being performed.
Results:
Of the one hundred shields, seven were found to have blood splatter. On post-procedure questionnaire, the vitreoretinal specialist denied any knowledge of blood splatter. The control eyeshield was not found to have blood splatter.
Conclusions:
Intraprocedureal blood splatter during intravitreal injections risks transconjunctival transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and viral hepatitis. This study is the first of its kind to document a 7% risk of blood splatter during intravitreal injections.