Outcomes of intravitreal bevacizumab and macular photocoagulation for treatment of diabetic macular edema in a tertiary care eye hospital at Karachi

Objective: To study the outcomes of intravitreal injection of Bevacizumab and laser photocoagulation in the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

Methods: Seventy-two eyes of 59 patients with diabetic macular edema were divided into two groups of 41 eyes (Group-A) and 31 eyes (Group-B). Subjects in group-A were treated with three intravitreal injections of Bevacizumab (IVB), and that of group-B with macular photocoagulation. Duration of study was 9 months. Follow up pattern for both groups was 1, 2, 3 and 6 months. Best Corrected Visual acuity on log MAR (BCVA) for distance as well as near in each visitwas recorded. Retinal OCT for central macular thickness (CMT) was performed on baseline. SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data.

Results: Mean age of the patients was 53.76 ± 8.82 ranging to 36-71 years. Out of 59 patients, 40 (67.8%) were male and 19 (32.2%) female. It was observed that the difference of results among both groups was not significant. Fig.2 documents visual acuity recorded as Improved; Stable and Worse.

Conclusion: The improvement in BCVA was significant at 6 months in both treatments. The final improvements in BCVA has been almost similar between both the treatment groups although it was noted that IVB group showed early improvement in BCVA at follow-ups of 1 and 3 months. A long term follow-up is required in these cases to see the effect of both these treatment strategies.