Treatment of radiation retinopathy with intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (Lucentis®)

Abstract

To report a treatment of radiation retinopathy in a patient exposed to ionizing radiation for a period of 2 years. A 26-year-old female patient with no comorbidities diagnosed with myelodysplasia confirmed by bone marrow biopsy. She presented a complaint of bilateral progressive visual acuity reduction. At the ophthalmologic examination, she presented alterations suggestive of radiation retinopathy as well as macular thickness to optical coherence tomography (OCT) of over 500 µm. The patient underwent intravitreal injection (0.05 mL) of ranibizumab (Lucentis® ) monthly in both eyes and follow-up through visual acuity and OCT examination. She presented reduction of macular edema as well as a slight improvement of visual acuity. In this case, the treatment of radiation retinopathy with intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (Lucentis) was relatively useful, with a slight improvement of visual acuity, due to the regression of macular edema, not being curative.