Intravitreal bevacizumab appears to be safe in preterm infants for treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.
A nine year, multicentre study performed in Mexico, Chile and India focused on systemic and adverse events, and included 418 eyes of 262 infants. Mean weight at birth was 1,338.3 grams, ranging from 600 grams to 1,800 grams. Average age at time of birth was 30 weeks, and average age at time of treatment was 36 weeks.
“We recorded 47 systemic potential adverse events, including three deaths not related to bevacizumab: one due to sepsis, one after brain surgery and one after blood transfusion,” said Dr. Maria Martinez-Castellanos at the American Society of Retinal Specialists meeting in Vienna.
Twenty-two subjects had psychomotor development retardation, six had respiratory distress syndrome, nine had intraventricular haemorrhage, and one each had cerebellar hypoplasia and dysmorphic syndrome.
Seventy-three local adverse events were reported, including 68 eyes with subconjunctival haemorrhage, 14 eyes with persistent avascular peripheral retina, six eyes with self-limited vitreous hemorrhage, three eyes with peripheral fi brous avascular membrane, one eye with subretinal haemorrhage and one eye with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.
“Most of the adverse events are related to the technique of doing the injection or pre-existing conditions. If the retina is partially detached, it will detach more,” said Dr. Martinez-Castellanos. “As far as systemic events are concerned, we could not say if they were related to bevacizumab or to the prematurity itself.” The presentation was reported online in Healio Ocular Surgery News.
