Bevacizumab in Inflammatory Eye Disease

Purpose

To report the effect of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin; Genentech Inc, South San Francisco, California, USA) on visual acuity and macular thickness in patients with inflammatory choroidal neovascularization (CNV) or cystoid macular edema (CME).

Design

Retrospective, noncomparative, interventional case series.

Methods

Each eye received 1.25 mg of intravitreal bevacizumab at baseline. Follow-up examinations were scheduled at 1- to 2-month intervals, with additional injections at the discretion of the physician. Comprehensive evaluations, including Snellen best-corrected visual acuity (BVCA) and optical coherence tomography measurements, were performed at each visit. Main outcome measures were BCVA and central subfield thickness (CST), as measured by optical coherence tomography.

Results

Thirty-four eyes of 30 patients with inflammatory CNV (n = 21 eyes of 19 patients; 9 male, 10 female) or CME (n = 13 eyes of 11 patients; 4 male, 7 female) were identified. Median ages were 52 years (range, 7 to 83) and 67 years (range, 17 to 83) for the CNV and CME groups, respectively. The median length of follow-up for CNV eyes was 7 months (range, 1 to 28) while the median follow-up for CME eyes was 13 months (range, 1 to 20). Both groups received a median of two injections (range, 1 to 9 for CNV and 1 to 4 for CME). For eyes with CNV, BCVA improved significantly at follow-up month 1, but was not different from baseline thereafter; CST remained unchanged throughout follow-up. For eyes with CME, neither BCVA nor CST changed significantly over the course of follow-up.

Conclusions

Bevacizumab appears to stabilize BCVA and CST for eyes with inflammatory CNV or CME.