Abstract
Purpose :
Anti-VEGF drugs have been widely used as the first-line treatments for patients with age-related macular degeneration, myopic choroidal neovascularization, retinal vein occlusion and diabetic maculopathy, and ranibizumab was approved for diabetic retinopathy without maculopathy. Intravitreally injected anti-VEGF drugs were associated with high incidence of systemic thromboembolic events in heart, brain, gastro intestine, or kidney, so it is important to assess their risks before treatments. We intravitreously inject anti-VEGF drugs in up to 500 eyes per month for years. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed records of anti-VEGF treatments to estimate the incidence of adverse effects from anti-VEGF therapy.
Methods :
Medical records of individuals who received intravitreal injections of aflibercept or ranibizumab after approval by Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, were collected. Data included age, sex, diagnosis, smoking status, previous medical history, usage of antiplatelet, and anticoagulant medicine. The study was reviewed by Nagoya University institutional review board, and participants had chances to opt-out.
Results :
From March 2009 to March 2017, total of 19,523 injections were performed at Nagoya University Hospital to 2,753 patients, and 565 patients among them received both of ranibizumab and aflibercept. Although this survey had a limitation because it was retrospective and based on medical records, we provide long-term data of anti-VEGF intravitreous injections.
Conclusions :
We experienced several thromboembolic cases, still intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF were relatively safe in Japanese patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.