Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the complications of intravitreal injection
Methods: :
In this series, patients (371 eyes of 227 patients) with age-related macular degeneration (122 eyes), branch retinal vein occlusion (87 eyes), diabetic macular edema (74 eyes), central retinal vein occlusion (42 eyes), myopic choroidal neovascularization (32 eyes), macular edema associated with retinitis pigmentosa (6 eyes), idiopathic macular telangiectasia (3 eyes), secondary choroidal neovascularization (3 eyes), or uveitis (2 eyes) were administered intravitreal injections. All eyes underwent intravitreal injection in Nagoya City University Hospital, and were followed up for more than 1 month after the therapy from January 2004 through July 2009. The mean age was 65 (range 21-87) years. The mean follow up time was 18 (range 1-65) months. Intravitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide (4 mg/0.1 ml) were performed in 242 eyes, pegaptanib (0.3mg / 0.09ml) in 51 eyes, and ranibizumab (0.5mg / 0.5ml) in 78 eyes. All injections were performed in operating room. All eyes received topical antibiotic before injections. After topical povidone iodine, intravitreal injections were performed at the site of 3.5mm or 4.0mm from corneal limbus using 27 or 30 gauge needle. The complications of intravitreal injections such as the incidence of intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation higher than 24 mmHg, cataract progression, vitreous hemorrhage, retinal tear or retinal detachment, and endophthalmitis were investigated.
Results: :
IOP elevation higher than 24 mmHg was occurred in 51 eyes (14%). Fifty eyes with IOP elevation were received triamcinolone acetonide, and 1 eye received pegaptanib. The time span between intravitreal injection and IOP elevation was 1 day (12 eyes; 24%), from 2 to 14 days (6 eyes; 12%), from 15 to 30 days (18 eyes; 35%), longer than 30 days (15 eyes; 29%), respectively. Cataract progression was occurred in 35 eyes of 150 phakic eyes (19%), all eyes received triamcinolone acetonide. Vitreous hemorrhage after intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide was observed in 1 eye (0.3%), but disappeared 10 days after the injection. Retinal tear, retinal detachment, and endophthalmitis were not observed in this series.
Conclusions: :
In this study, no serious complication of intravitreal injections such as endophthalmitis was observed.
Keywords: injection • endophthalmitis