Increases in IL-8 (an inflammatory angiogenic mediator) and VEGF (a regulatory mediator of cellular proliferation and permeability) may be related to development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy.

Aims To determine the short-term effect of intravitreal bevacizumab administration on systemic blood pressure levels of patients and to evaluate the safety of the drug in these patients. Methods Study population was divided into two groups: group A comprised patients who had hypertension and were under medication with antihypertensive drugs; group B comprised patients with normal blood pressure and were not under medication with antihypertensive drugs. All patients were graded according to their blood pressure levels before single dose of bevacizumab (0.05 ml; 1.25 mg) injection, and at day 1 and weeks 1, 3, and 6 thereafter. The blood pressure levels were analysed using repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA). A P-value of o0.05 was considered significant.Results The study population included 82 patients with a mean age of 67.2±5.2 years. In group A, the systolic blood pressure levels showed significant increases at weeks 1, 3, and 6 (P ¼ 0.001, Po0.001, and P ¼ 0.003, respectively) compared with baseline. Similarly, diastolic blood pressure levels were significantly higher at weeks 3 (Po0.001) and 6 (P ¼ 0.016). In group B, the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels showed significant elevations only at week 3 (P ¼ 0.004 and Po0.001, respectively). The percentages of both group A and B patients with normal blood pressure decreased at week 3 compared with baseline (Po0.001 and P ¼ 0.012 for groups A and B, respectively). Conclusions The findings of this study show that there is a risk of disregulation of blood pressure levels or persistence of hypertension in hypertensive patients after intravitreal bevacizumab injections.

Our results indicate that intravitreal bevacizumab injection may be a new, promising treatment option for select patients with idiopathic persistent central serous chorioretinopathy. Continued studies with intravitreal bevacizumab in this population will help to establish its long-term efficacy.

Introduction The aim of this study was to report the incidence and management of acute endophthalmitis after intravitreal injection of Avastin (bevacizumab), and visual acuity outcomes of three eyes of three patients who developed acute endophthalmitis following intravitreal injection of Avastin. Methods This clinical retrospective, non-comparative study included 3022 intravitreal injections of 1.25 mg bevacizumab consecutively performed for 1822 eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases. Of 3022 injections, 1200 were reinjections. After clinical appearance of post-injection endophthalmitis, immediate intervention was performed, including injection of intravitreal antibiotics and early pars plana vitrectomy. Results Three eyes of three patients with acute postoperative endophthalmitis were identified in the first week following intravitreal injections of 1.25 mg bevacizumab. Among of these patients, two cases were culture-positive and one case was culture-negative. Compared with presenting visual acuities, all of three patients improved at the end of follow-up time. The overall incidence rate of post-injection culture-proven endophthalmitis was 0.066%. Discussion Acute culture-proven endophthalmitis is still a potential complication of intravitreal bevacizumab injection (approximately 0.066%) despite using maximal sterile techniques. Acute post-injection endophthalmitis following intravitreal bevacizumab occurs rapidly and can result in severe loss of vision. Prompt

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