Long-Term Effects of Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection for Macular Edema Secondary to Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To report the long term effects of intravitreal bevacizumab injection (IVAI) for the treatment of macular edema due to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). METHODS: In this retrospective study, 47 consecutive patients (47 eyes) whose visual acuity under 20/40 and macular thickness over 250 microm from BRVO received IVAI (1.25 mg). All patients were observed over 12 months. The patients were classified into three groups one, resolved macular edema after first injection, second, persistant, third, recurrant. At 12 months after injection, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) were compared with one another. RESULTS: Comparing with baseline BCVA (0.96 +/- 0.32, 1.13 +/- 0.42, 0.85 +/- 0.24 log MAR unit), the mean at 12 months was significantly increased (0.50 +/- 0.30, 0.76 +/- 0.51, 0.55 +/- 0.35) in each group. The mean CMT at baseline was 510.84 (+/- 171.07), 538.5 (+/- 216.87), 522.6 (+/- 101.82) microm decreased to 211.58 (+/- 42.74), 232 (+/- 132.68), 270.6 (+/- 85.27). CONCLUSIONS: IVAI was a result of significant decrease of CMT with improvement of BCVA in patients with BRVO after a follow-up of 12 months.