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Intravitreal bevacizumab injections may result in RPE tears in some CNV patients, study finds
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Injecting bevacizumab intravitreally to treat patients with predominantly classic choroidal neovasularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration may cause tears in the retinal pigment epithelium, according to a study by researchers in Europe.
Luis Arias, MD, and colleagues examined 40 consecutive patients using optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography to detect retinal pigment epithelium tears. All patients had been treated with 1.25 mg of intravitreal Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech).
Of 40 total patients, three patients developed an RPE tear after the initial injection, the authors reported.
One patient had been treated with Visudyne (verteporfin, Novartis/QLT) photodynamic therapy, and visual acuity remained unaffected.
"In the other two cases, the CNV was naive and VA improved since the foveal center was not involved by the tear and macular edema was reduced," the authors said.
The study is published in the December issue of European Journal of Ophthalmology.