Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul;65(7):596-602.
doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_992_16.

Real-world evidence of safety profile of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) in an Indian scenario

Prashant Jain  1 , Jay Sheth  1 , Giridhar Anantharaman  1 , Mahesh Gopalakrishnan  1
Affiliations

Real-world evidence of safety profile of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) in an Indian scenario

Prashant Jain et al. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety profile of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) as an off-label pharmacotherapeutic agent for various ocular conditions.

Methods: Retrospective analysis was carried out on 3806 injections of 1761 patients that were administered with intravitreal bevacizumab injection at a tertiary eye care center in India. The injections were administered on a pro re nata basis for various indications such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), and retinal vein occlusion (RVO).

Results: The mean age of the patients was 61.8 ± 11.59 years. A total of 59.2% of the patients were men and 40.8% women. The most common indications for which the injection was administered were DME (27.5%), AMD (26%), and branch RVO (12.3%). Among the ocular side effects, endophthalmitis was seen in three eyes (0.08%), retinal breaks in none of the eyes whereas 35 eyes had a rise in intraocular pressure (IOP) >21 mmHg (0.9%). Preexisting glaucoma was present in four eyes while remaining 31 eyes did not have any history of glaucoma. IOP rise was significantly more in eyes with preexisting glaucoma as compared to nonglaucomatous eyes (P = 0.04). No systemic adverse events were noted in our study population.

Conclusion: Our study provides real-world evidence regarding the safety profile of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin). These data suggest that bevacizumab is a safe and economical pharmacotherapeutic agent that can be administered for a variety of ocular disorders. Analyzing the safety of bevacizumab is necessary for a developing country like India as the majority of the population cannot afford the costly ranibizumab as compared to bevacizumab for ocular healthcare.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preexisting systemic illness in the study population
Figure 2
Figure 2
Indications for the intravitreal Avastin in the study population
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yau JW, Rogers SL, Kawasaki R, Lamoureux EL, Kowalski JW, Bek T, et al. Global prevalence and major risk factors of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes Care. 2012;35:556–64. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Heier JS, Brown DM, Chong V, Korobelnik JF, Kaiser PK, Nguyen QD, et al. Intravitreal aflibercept (VEGF trap-eye) in wet age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2012;119:2537–48. - PubMed
    1. CATT Research Group. Martin DF, Maguire MG, Ying GS, Grunwald JE, Fine SL, et al. Ranibizumab and bevacizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. N Engl J Med. 2011;364:1897–908. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Heier JS, Antoszyk AN, Pavan PR, Leff SR, Rosenfeld PJ, Ciulla TA, et al. Ranibizumab for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: A phase I/II multicenter, controlled, multidose study. Ophthalmology. 2006;113:633.e1–4. - PubMed
    1. Kaiser PK, Cruess AF, Bogaert P, Khunti K, Kelly SP. Balancing risk in ophthalmic prescribing: Assessing the safety of anti-VEGF therapies and the risks associated with unlicensed medicines. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2012;250:1563–71. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms