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Avastin serves as surgical adjunct in proliferative diabetic retinopathy
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LAS VEGAS — Administering bevacizumab 1 week before vitrectomy in patients with complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy may enhance the ease and success of the procedure, according to a surgeon speaking here.
Robert L. Avery, MD, and colleagues performed a study evaluating the combined drug and surgical treatment approach in 45 eyes with progression of diabetic retinopathy despite treatment with panretinal photocoagulation. In response to surgery after treatment with Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech/Novartis), 44 of these eyes experienced an improvement in vision, supporting the drug's efficacy as an adjunctive therapy, he said.
Dr. Avery discussed the study results, which were published last month in Ophthalmology, during Retina Subspecialty Day preceding the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
"There was a rapid, biologic effect," he said, including regression of neovascularization. "Sometimes you can even avoid going into the operating room."
After injection of Avastin, some eyes showed a treatment response within 24 to 48 hours, but the effect varied, he said.
Dr. Avery said injection of Avastin 1 week before vitrectomy made the cases "much easier." He explained that the injections reduce the amount of edema that occurs when fibrovascular tissue is incised.
Due to concern over neovascularization in fellow eyes, Dr. Avery has begun using doses as small as one-tenth or one-one-hundredth of the 1.25 mg dose initially used. He noted that more investigation is needed to determine appropriate dosages.