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. 2022 Jul;36(7):1373-1378.
doi: 10.1038/s41433-021-01646-3. Epub 2021 Jun 25.

Intravitreal injections: past trends and future projections within a UK tertiary hospital

Reena Chopra  1 , Gabriella C Preston  1 , Tiarnan D L Keenan  2 , Pádraig Mulholland  1   3 , Praveen J Patel  1 , Konstantinos Balaskas  1 , Robin D Hamilton  1 , Pearse A Keane  4
Affiliations

Intravitreal injections: past trends and future projections within a UK tertiary hospital

Reena Chopra et al. Eye (Lond). 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Aims: To describe past trends and future projections for the number of intravitreal injections being administered at a large tertiary hospital in London, United Kingdom.

Methods: Retrospective data from Moorfields Eye Hospital were collected using the electronic medical record system. Descriptive statistics were used to visualise overall trends. Time series forecasting was used to predict the number of injections that will be administered up to and including the year 2029.

Results: The number of injections has increased nearly 11-fold from 2009 to 2019, with a total of 44,924 injections delivered in 2019. The majority of injections were given for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Aflibercept formed 87% of injections administered in 2019. The number of injections is predicted to continue to increase every year, with nearly 83,000 injections forecasted in the year 2029.

Conclusion: The demand for intravitreal injections has increased substantially over the last decade and is predicted to further increase. Healthcare systems will need to adapt to accommodate the high demand. Other solutions may include longer-acting therapies to reduce the treatment burden.

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Conflict of interest statement

Independent of this work, RC is an employee of Google LLC and owns Alphabet stock. PJP has acted as a consultant for Bayer UK, Novartis UK and Roche UK. Dr. Balaskas has acted as a consultant for Roche and Novartis and has received speaker fees from Novartis, Bayer, Allergan, Alimera, Topcon and Heidelberg Engineering. RDH has acted as a consultant for Bayer, Novartis, Allergan, Alimera and Roche, and has received speaker fees from Ellex, Novartis, Alimera, Roche, Allergan, and Bayer. PAK has acted as a consultant for DeepMind, Roche, Novartis, and Apellis and is an equity owner in Big Picture Medical. He has received speaker fees from Heidelberg Engineering, Topcon, Allergan, and Bayer.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Historical trends.
Number of patients that attended the intravitreal injection clinic every week (black), and the number of injections administered (grey), between August 2008 to December 2019 (inclusive), at Moorfields Eye Hospital. The annotations highlight when drugs became available on the Moorfields formulary and for which conditions.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Number of injections given per year from 2008–2019.
a Stratified by retinal condition, (b) stratified by drug.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Weekly number of injections per condition.
Number of injections given per week for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), macular oedema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO), and diabetic macular oedema.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Bilateral treatment.
Percentage of patient visits where injections were given bilaterally, stratified by retinal condition and year.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Forecasting future trends.
Actual number of monthly injections from 2008 to the end of 2019 (black). Forecasted number of monthly injections for a 10-year period from 2020 to the end of 2029 with shaded 95% confidence intervals (grey).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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