Visual Outcome versus Vision Satisfaction after Intravitreal Bevasizumb Injection in Diabetic Retinopathy

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy as an important complication of diabetes mellitus is a common cause of blindness in diabetic people. A cure or treatment is not available yet. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of the intravitreal injection of Avastin on patient’s visual satisfaction with diabetic retinopathy.

Materials and Methods: This study included 30 eyes of thirty diabetic retinopathy patients (mean age: 60.47±8.94 years) showing no recovery with common treatments. After the intravitreal injection of 1.25mg/0.05ml of Avastin, the examination was performed after injection. In this examination, the resolution of neovascularization, clearance of vitreous and visual acuity were evaluated versus visual satisfaction.

Results: 60% of patients were women (n=18) and 40% were men (n=12). All patients had type 2 diabetes for a period of 8. 47±5.28 years (range 2-25 years). The observed change was 0.22±0.63 log MAR in the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in right eye which was statistically significant (p=0.010). The BCVA in left eye was 0.31±0.74 log mar, also showing significant relation (p=0.020). BCVA Changes did not have a meaningful relationship with age and sex of patients, but these changes were negatively related to duration of diabetes retinopathy in both right and left eyes (p=0/048, p=0/006 respectively).

Conclusion: Avastin showed short-term statistically significant visual benefits and also, improvements in ophthalmic pathology in clinical examination versus visual satisfaction, however it was not compatible to ask all of the patient's visual satisfaction. Therefore, further studies will be needed to determine the therapeutic effects of this treatment option.