Intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) for primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema

Background To evaluate the effectiveness of intravitreal bevacizumab injection as primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema. Material and methods Thirty eyes of 30 diabetic patients were treated with 2.5 mg of intravitreal bevacizumab injection as the primary therapy for diabetic macular oedema. The main outcome measures included best-corrected visual acuity, fundus fluorescein angiography, and macular oedema map values of Heidelberg retinal tomograph II (HRT II) before and after intravitreal injection. Results The visual acuity increased in 24 of 30 eyes (80%) during a mean follow-up time of 5.6 months. The mean baseline best-corrected LogMAR value for visual acuities of the patients before intravitreal bevacizumab injection was 1.09 +/- 0.23. After treatment, it was 0.90 +/- 0.17 at the 1-month, 0.81 +/- 0.24, at 3-month, and 0.77 +/- 0.26 at the last visit examinations and the differences were significant when compared with baseline values (for each, P < 0.001). The mean oedema map values significantly decreased by 33.3% at the last visit examination when compared with preinjection values (P < 0.001). Mild anterior chamber inflammation was observed in four eyes (13.3%), which resolved in a week with topical corticosteroid. No other injection- or drug-related complications were observed. Conclusion Intravitreal bevacizumab application provides significant improvement in visual acuity of diabetic patients and clinical course of macular oedema, and may therefore be a promising approach in the primary treatment of diabetic macular oedema.