Early and Late Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection in Macular Edema Due to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

Young Gyun Kim; Eung Suk Kim; Moo Sang Kim; Seung Young Yu; Hyung Woo Kwak

doi:10.3341/jkos.2009.50.10.1527

Journal List > J Korean Ophthalmol Soc > v.50(10) > 1008393

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Kim, Kim, Kim, Yu, and Kwak: Early and Late Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection in Macular Edema Due to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2009;50(10):1527-1530.

Published online: 3 August 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2009.50.10.1527

Early and Late Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection in Macular Edema Due to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

Young Gyun Kim, MD¹, Eung Suk Kim, MD², Moo Sang Kim, MD³, Seung Young Yu, MD, PhD³, Hyung Woo Kwak, MD, PhD³

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College of Chung Ang, Seoul, Korea

³Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College of Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Hyung Woo kwak, MD, PhD Department of Ophthalmology, Medical College of Kyung Hee University #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-702, Korea Tel: 82-2-958-8451, Fax: 82-2-966-7340, E-mail: hwkwak@khu.ac.kr

Received 10 August 2009 Accepted 6 October 2009

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the effects of early and late intravitreal injection of bevacizumab in patients with macular edema (ME) due to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO).

Methods

The study sample included 56 eyes of 56 patients who received intravitreal bevacizumab injection for ME due to BRVO and were followed up with at least six months of observation. We retrospectively divided eyes into two classes that included 36 eyes with a disease duration of ≤ 3 months (early treatment group) and 20 eyes with a disease duration of > 3 months (late treatment group). We assessed the effects of injection on the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness and IOP at one, three, and six months after treatment.

Results

There was no statistically significant differences in terms of sex, age, number of injections, ischemia, pre-injection visual acuity and central retinal thickness between the two treatment groups. Improvements in central retinal thickness were observed in both groups but were not significantly different between the groups. Visual acuity improved in both groups after treatment; the improvement was significantly better in the early treatment group observed three and six months after treatment. IOP did not change after treatment in either group.

Conclusions

In cases of ME due to BRVO, early intravitreal bevacizumab injection is more effective than late injection for maintaining and improving visual acuity.

Keywords: Bevacizumab, BRVO, Early treatment, Macular edema

References

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Figure 1.

Graph showing changes in central macular thickness after intravitreal bevacizumab injection. The error bars denote the standard errors of the means. ^* Statistically significant change from baseline at each visit within group (p<0.05).

Figure 2.

Graph showing changes in visual acuity after intravitreal bevacizumab injection. The error bars denote the standard errors of the means.

^* Statistically significant change from baseline at each visit within group (p<0.05); ^† Statistically significant difference between two groups at each follow-up visit (p<0.05).

Figure 3.

Graph showing changes in intraocular pressure after intravitreal bevacizumab injection.

Table 1.

Patient demographics

Characteristics	Early treatment (≤ 3mo)	Late treatment (> 3mo)	p-value
Numbers of eyes	36	20
Sex (male/female)	13/23	4/16	0.209
Right/Left	20/16	12/8	0.747
Age	58.83±7.8	56.3±8.6	0.268
Symptom duration (week)	6.4±2.7	26.4±18.0	0.011^*
Numbers of injection	3.19±0.8	3.25±1.3	0.848
Ischemic/non-ischemic	18/18	6/14	0.147
Visual acuity (ETDRS)	0.65±0.3	0.70±0.4	0.666
Central macular thickness (um)	498.7±207	430.0±199	0.234

^* Statistical significance by t-test, p<0.05.

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