Electroretinographic evaluations of retinal function before, just after, and after intravitreal injections

Abstract

Intravitreal injections (IVI) have become a part of daily practice for a growing number of procedures. We evaluated the retinal function by recording intraoperative photopic electroretinograms (ERGs) before an injection (T1), just after the injection (T2), and after the aspiration of the anterior chamber fluid (T3) of 19 eyes of 19 patients (mean age 70.6 years; men = 11) who received an IVI of an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor. The mean amplitudes of the b-wave, photopic negative responses (PhNR), and oscillatory potentials (OPs) 1 and 2 at T2 were significantly smaller than that at T1, but no significant difference was observed between T3 and T1. The mean implicit times of the a-wave and OP1, 2, and 3 at T2 and the a-wave and the OP2 at T3 were significantly longer than that at T1. The mean intraocular pressure (IOP) at T2 (49.32 mm Hg) was significantly higher and the IOP at T3 (8.74 mm Hg) was significantly lower than that at T1 (21.05 mm Hg). The retinal function was reduced and the IOP elevated just after the IVI. The response of each ERG component was different suggesting a different sensitivity of each type of retinal neuron to IVI.