Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the safety of intravitreal injection of bevacizumab ( Avastin, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA) and its effects on visual acuity (VA) and retinal thickness in patients failing standard treatments for wet AMD and other types of retinal vascular diseases.
Methods: :
To date, 144 retinal vascular patients (150 eyes) have received an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab avastin ( 1.25mg/0.01ml) on individual patient management basis. Their best corrected visual acuity was 20/50 or worse. Safety assessments were performed at all visits by complete ophthalmic examination as is standard of care for all intravitral treatments. Ophthalmologic evaluations included protocol VA measurements and ocular examinations, along with optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, fluorescein angiography. That will be done after 1 week, 1month and then monthly till 6month from the injection.
Results: :
There were no serious ocular adverse events identified. 25% show a significant increases in BCVA of about 2 lines which were evident within 1 week of treatment. 45% show stabilization of their BCVA and only 30% are deteriorating by 1 line. OCT analysis shows the mean central retinal thickness measurements decreased by 131 µm in 57.14% of the cases.
Conclusions: :
Preliminary results indicate that rescue therapy with avastin is safe and effective treatment for patients with different retinal vascular disease including wet AMD who fail standard regimen.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • diabetic retinopathy • injection