Intravitreal injections during COVID-19 outbreak: Real-world experience from an Italian tertiary referral center

Abstract

We report our experience during COVID-19 outbreak for intravitreal injections in patients with maculopathy. We proposed a treatment priority levels and timings; the "High" priority level includes all monocular patients; the "Moderate" is assigned to all patients with an active macular neovascularization; the patients affected by diabetic macular edema or retinal vein occlusion belong to the "Low" class. This organization allowed us to treat the most urgent patients although the injections performed had a 91.7% drop compared to the same period of 2019.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; central serous chorioretinopathy; diabetic macular edema; practice management; retina; retina – medical therapies; socioeconomics and education in medicine/ophthalmology; venous occlusive disease.