Early intravitreal bevacizumab for non-ischaemic branch retinal vein occlusion.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of early intravitreal bevacizumab application in patients with macular oedema due to non-ischaemic branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO).

PROCEDURES: The study included 21 patients (21 eyes) with macular oedema due to non-ischaemic BRVO. Inclusion criteria were significant macular oedema as measured by optical coherence tomography, loss of visual acuity and leakage in fluorescence angiography. All patients received 3 intravitreal injections of 1.5 mg bevacizumab. The mean follow-up was 6.2 +/- 1.2 months (mean +/- standard deviation). The mean duration of the BRVO prior to treatment was 9.2 +/- 5.4 days.

RESULTS: The visual acuity improved significantly from baseline 0.81 +/- 0.53 logMAR to 0.54 +/- 0.47 logMAR (p < 0.001) at 1 month, 0.55 +/- 0.46 (p = 0.001) at 3 months and to 0.55 +/- 0.49 (p = 0.002) at 6 months after the first injection. The mean central retinal thickness decreased significantly (p < 0.001) from 492 +/- 113 microm at baseline to 294 +/- 117 microm at 1 month after the first injection to 325 +/- 127 microm at 3 months (p < 0.001) and to 316 +/- 117 microm at 6 months (p < 0.001) after the first injection. The increase in visual acuity correlated significantly (p < 0.01) with the decrease in macular thickness.

CONCLUSIONS: Early intravitreal injection of bevacizumab may decrease macular oedema and improve visual acuity in eyes with non-ischaemic BRVO.