The Effect of Bilateral Intravitreal Ranibizumab Administration on Pain in Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the effect of intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) bilateral application on pain in diabetic patients
 Materials and Methods: Forty-two eyes of 42 patients who underwent bilateral IVR for diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema were considered as group 1 and 42 eyes were considered as group 2. Patients who underwent previous intravitreal injection, underwent any eye surgery and were not able to co-operate in the evaluation were excluded from the study. During the injection, pain was assessed using a numerical scale(NS) (Figure 1) and a verbal category scale (VCS) (Figure 2).
 Results: The mean age of 20 male (47.7%) patients in the groups was 59.90±6.03 years, and the mean age of 22 female (52.3%) patients was 60.72±3.88 years.(p=0.52) In Group 1, the NS was 3.78±1.11, while in Group 2 it was 4.14±1.37, the difference was statistically significant (p=0.01). In group 1, VCS was 2.30±0.71, while in group 2, VCS was 2.73± 0.93, the difference was statistically significant (p=0.01) (Table )
 Conclusion: In diabetic patients who underwent bilateral IVR in the same session, pain sensation in the first injected eye was found to be less.