A series of 5 cases of severe intraocular inflammation that developed after an intravitreal injection of Avastin (bevacizumab) is reported. Avastin (bevacizumab) is approved for intravenous administration for the treatment of metastatic colon cancer. In ophthalmology, Avastin has been used widely as an off-label treatment for ocular disorders...

Noninfectious endophthalmitis after anti-VEGF therapy may represent a maturing immune response to repeated doses, according to a speaker at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting. While infectious endophthalmitis remains a pressing concern after anti-VEGF therapy because of its potentially sight-threatening sequelae, noninfectious...

A new study reporting on the largest series of presumed endophthalmitis cases following intravitreal anti-VEGF injection published to date finds an incidence of 0.049%, and that 20% of cases have a very poor visual outcome. Endophthalmitis is the most dreaded complication of intravitreal injection. Several studies have reported on the incidence...

A small retrospective series of patients with limited follow-up undergoing simultaneous bilateral intravitreal injections of a variety of medications for an assortment of ocular conditions reports that the procedure was well tolerated by all patients, and that given a choice none of the patients requested alternating unilateral injections after...

Intravitreal injections have become a routine practice in ophthalmology, with more than 10,000 injections performed per month, according to a speaker at the meeting of the French Society of Ophthalmology. The procedure has been simplified and is now mostly performed in an ambulatory setting under topical anesthesia. The protocols for...

Contamination of intravitreal injection needles is more common than post-injection endophthalmitis, according to a study. The study included 200 needle cultures from 178 injections and 22 controls. Patients received intravitreal injections of Avastin (bevacizumab) or Lucentis (ranibizumab) for age-related macular degeneration. Pre-injection...

A new study finds that the rate of infectious endophthalmitis following intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF agents is 0.077%. A retrospective review of patients who received intravitreal injections of Avastin (bevacizumab), Lucentis (ranibizumab), and Macugen (pegaptanib sodium) was undertaken. Cases of clinical diagnoses of endophthalmitis or...

This study reports on the clinical manifestations of severe intraocular inflammation that occasionally occur following intravitreal injections of Avastin (bevacizumab). Although rare, intraocular inflammation (also known as uveitis) has been reported to occur following about 2% of injections, and is reported to be the most common drug-related...

A new study reports an incidence of culture-proved enophthalmitis following Avastin (bevacizumab) injection of 0.066% despite using maximal sterile techniques. This clinical retrospective, non-comparative study included 3022 intravitreal injections of 1.25 mg Avastin consecutively performed for 1822 eyes with exudative age-related macular...

Public health authorities in Canada are investigating a spike in cases of sterile endophthalmitis among patients being treated for AMD with Avastin. First noticed in British Columbia, there appears to be a rise in cases in other parts of the country as well. And now authorities are trying to draw the potential problem to the attention of the...