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ABSTRACT.Purpose: To record retinal vascular events following intravitreal bevacizumab injection. Methods: Collaborative multi-centre retrospective case series. Results: Eight patients were documented to have central retinal artery occlusion (four patients), branch retinal artery occlusion, capillary occlusion, central retinal vein occlusion and branch retinal vein occlusion (one patient each) within 0-55 days (median 2 weeks) of intravitreal bevacizumab. All patients had several ocular and systemic risk factors for retinal vascular events: elevated intraocular pressure on discharge (four patients), pre-existent glaucoma (one patient), pre-existent ischaemic retinal vascular disorder (four patients), systemic hypertension (five patients), diabetes mellitus (three patients), coronary artery disease (four patients), carotid disease (three patients), smoking (two patients) and migraine (one patient). Conclusion: The retinal vascular events may be associated with the underlying ocular disease under treatment or with the underlying systemic disease, may be related to an increased intraocular pressure post-injection constraining further an already poor retinal perfusion, the vasoconstrictor effect of bevacizumab, or a combination of all three.Key words: bevacizumab -branch retinal artery occlusion -branch retinal vein occlusioncapillary occlusion -central retinal artery occlusion -central retinal vein occlusion

Intravitreal injection bevacizumab resulted in reduction in the central retinal thickness and mild to moderate improvement in the mfERG amplitudes in this short-term study. The visual acuity changes did not directly correlate with the reduced central retinal thickness or improvement in mfERG. The short-term results showed no serious ocular adverse effects. Therefore on short-term follow up the off label drug showed improvement of macular edema secondary to vein occlusion and diabetic retinopathy with no demonstrable toxic effects.

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