Abstract
Purpose :
To compare the effect of intravitreal injection of bevacizumab and ranibizumab for macular edema caused by retinal vein occlusion.
Methods :
This was a retrospective chart review study. Patients diagnosed as BRVO, CRVO or Hemi-RVO during 2014 to 2016 in National cheng Kung University Hospital were included. Refractory macular edema was defined as persistent or recurrent macular edema after more than 3 times of IVI treatment. Visual acuity and central retinal thickness improvement were collected in 6 months and 12 months follow-up periods to compare the treatment effect of bevacizumab and ranibizumab.
Results :
93 patients were included, while 64 patients received bevacizumab injections and 29 patients ranibizumab injections. Totally, 36 patients (38.7%) received more than 3 times of injections but still had persistent or recurrent macular edema. The refractory macular edema rates were similar between bevacizumab group and ranibizumab group (40.6% vs 34.5%, p value = 0.65). There was no significant difference in visual acuity improvement and central retinal thickness decrease between these two groups in 6 months and 12 months follow-up period. In sub-group analysis, bevacizumab revealed no inferiorities to ranibizumab in visual acuity improvement or central retinal thickness decrease in both BRVO and CRVO groups.
Conclusions :
For patients with macular edema caused by retinal vein occlusion, intravitreal bevacizumab was noninferior to ranibizumab in visual acuity and central retinal thickenss improvement after 6 and 12 months after treatment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.