Intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) for primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of intravitreal bevacizumab injection as primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema. Material and methods: Thirty eyes of 30 diabetic patients were treated with 2.5 mg of intravitreal bevacizumab injection as the primary therapy for diabetic macular oedema. The main outcome measures included best-corrected visual acuity, fundus fluorescein angiography, and macular oedema map values of Heidelberg retinal tomograph II (HRT II) before and after intravitreal injection. Results: The visual acuity increased in 24 of 30 eyes (80%) during a mean follow-up time of 5.6 months. The mean baseline best-corrected LogMAR value for visual acuities of the patients before intravitreal bevacizumab injection was 1.09Plusmn;0.23. After treatment, it was 0.90Plusmn;0.17 at the 1-month, 0.81Plusmn;0.24, at 3-month, and 0.77Plusmn;0.26 at the last visit examinations and the differences were significant when compared with baseline values (for each, P<0.001). The mean oedema map values significantly decreased by 33.3% at the last visit examination when compared with preinjection values (P<0.001). Mild anterior chamber inflammation was observed in four eyes (13.3%), which resolved in a week with topical corticosteroid. No other injection- or drug-related complications were observed. Conclusion: Intravitreal bevacizumab application provides significant improvement in visual acuity of diabetic patients and clinical course of macular oedema, and may therefore be a promising approach in the primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema. © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.