Original articleIntravitreal Bevacizumab to Treat Iris Neovascularization and Neovascular Glaucoma Secondary to Ischemic Retinal Diseases in 41 Consecutive Cases
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
The authors retrospectively reviewed the charts of a consecutive series of 41 eyes of 30 patients who underwent IVB to treat INV (IOP ≤21 mmHg without antiglaucoma medication) or NVG (IOP >21 mmHg) caused by ischemic retinal disorders including PDR, central retinal vein occlusion, and ocular ischemic syndrome. All patients were treated at the Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Hospital, Osaka, Japan, from October 2005 to June 2007 and were followed up for at least 6 months.
Results
Of the 30 patients, 7 were women and 23 were men. The mean age was 57.3±9.6 years (range, 34–71 years). The mean follow-up period was 13.3±5.1 months (range, 6–22 months). Of 41 eyes, 9 eyes were included in the INV group, 17 eyes in the O-NVG group, and 15 eyes in the C-NVG group. The patient demographics and baseline characteristics of each group are shown in Table 1. There was no significant difference in age, gender, the type of underlying ischemic retinal disease, previous treatments, lens
Discussion
Recent encouraging results from several small case studies of IVB in the treatment of INV, NVG, or both promoted the authors to consider the drug as the first treatment of choice not only for INV but also for more severe NVG secondary to ischemic retinal disorders.22 The rapid biologic effect of bevacizumab is favorable and is not surprising because preclinical primate studies have shown that intravitreal VEGF antibodies are sufficient to halt the experimentally induced INV by vein occlusion.4,
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Manuscript no. 2007-1380.
Financial Disclosure(s): The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
Supported in part by research grants from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Tokyo, Japan.