Abstract
Purpose :
Patients receive intraocular anti-VEG-F injections for multiple retinal vascular diseases. While vision threatening side effects are rare, many patients will note some level of discomfort after an injection. A common practice for many retina specialists is to recommend that the patient call the office if he or she has significant discomfort. It is our experience that patients will with some frequency come in for their next injection stating that they had significant discomfort after the injection but did not call the office. The purpose of our study is to determine whether patients will use post-injection eye drops if made available to them for mild to moderate discomfort.
Methods :
Prior to the intraocular injection patients were given a handout with five options: 1. No discomfort - no drops necessary. 2. Mild discomfort - artificial tear drops as needed. 3. Mild to moderate discomfort - topical nonsteroidal eye drops (acular) every 4 hours as needed for one day. 4. Moderate discomfort - topical steroid eye drops (pred forte 1%) every 4 hours as needed for one day. 5. Severe discomfort - call office immediately. Patients were then anesthetized with topical anesthetic drops and tetracaine gel. Betadine was applied to the conjunctiva and lid twice. The anti-VEG-F injection was performed 2-5 minutes later via the pars plana. Topical antibiotic drops and IOP lowering drops were applied. The patient was discharged home. A follow-up phone call was made the next day.
Results :
125 consecutive anti-VEG-F injection patients were included in the study. 94 patients responded to the follow-up questionnaire the day after the injection. 31 patients used an eye drop on the day of the injection (33.0%). Of the patients that used eye drops, 6 (19.4%) used artificial tears, 9 (29%) used acular, and 16 (51.6%) used pred forte. All patients stopped the eye drop after the follow-up phone call.
Conclusions :
The study confirms that a significant number of patients undergoing anti-VEG-F injections in an office setting will develop mild to moderate discomfort the day of the injection. We recommend counseling the patient about possible discomfort and making topical drops including lubricating drops, nonsteroidal, and steroid drops available on a short term basis following injections. This will increase patient satisfaction and lessen the number of post-injection phone calls regarding mild to moderate discomfort.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.