Bevacizumab boosts VA in uveitic CME

A single intravitreal injection of bevacizumab can aid short-term improvement in visual acuity (VA) and decrease optimal coherence tomography (OCT) retinal thickness in patients with uveitic cystoid macular oedema (CME), according to a recent study published in the March issue of Opthalmology.

Miguel Cordero Coma, MD and colleagues from the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institute, USA and the Department of Ophthalmology at the Hospital de León, Spain, conducted a retrospective, non-comparative, interventional case study to evaluate the short-term safety and efficacy of intravitreal bevacizumab on 13 patients undergoing treatment for CME.

The study found that six (46.2%) patients had a decrease in foveal thickness at the end of the follow-up, whereas five (38.4%) patients had an improvement of VA by ≥2 lines 84 days or more after the injection. Over the follow-up period, mean retinal thickness showed a significant decrease (p<0.02), while the change in mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution VA was not significant (p>0.05). Survival analysis indicated that the probability of any improvement in VA progressively increased from six weeks and reached 81% at 14 weeks.

The authors concluded that a single intravitreal injection of bevacizumab is well tolerated and can help achieve short-term improvement in VA and decreased OCT retinal thickness in patients with uveitic CME resistant to conventional therapy. It was suggested that further evaluation of intravitreal bevacizumab for uveitic CME in controlled randomized studies is necessary.