Acute Kidney Injury from Intravitreal Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Drugs: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Several observational studies have reported acute kidney injury from intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs for retinal diseases. However, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials on this critical topic are scant.
Objective: To evaluate acute kidney injury risk associated with intravitreal anti-VEGF drugs in patients with retinal diseases.
Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials on 12 July, 2023, and included randomized controlled trials reporting acute kidney injury between anti-VEGF drugs (e.g., aflibercept, bevacizumab, brolucizumab, and ranibizumab) and controls for retinal diseases (e.g., age-related macular degeneration, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, diabetic retinopathy/diabetic macular edema, retinal vein occlusion, and myopic choroidal neovascularization). Data were synthesized by a fixed-effects model for pooling odds ratios (ORs) using the Peto method.
Results: We included 13 randomized controlled trials (four and nine trials for aflibercept and ranibizumab, respectively) with a total of 4282 participants. The meta-analysis indicated intravitreal anti-VEGF drugs did not increase the acute kidney injury risk, compared with controls (odds ratio [OR]: 1.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.49-2.04, I ² : 0%), and no differences in the acute kidney injury risk were observed between different anti-VEGF drugs (OR: 1.10, 95% CI 0.27-4.43, I ² : 0% for aflibercept; OR: 0.97, 95% CI 0.42-2.22, I ² : 0% for ranibizumab) and between different retinal diseases (OR: 4.61, 95% CI 0.07-284.13, I ² : not applicable for age-related macular degeneration; OR: 0.90, 95% CI 0.42-1.93, I ² : 0% for diabetic retinopathy/diabetic macular edema; OR: 1.57, 95% CI 0.16-15.88, I ² : 0% for retinal vein occlusion).
Conclusions: Intravitreal anti-VEGF drugs were not associated with an acute kidney injury risk, regardless of which anti-VEGF drugs (aflibercept or ranibizumab) or retinal diseases (age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy/diabetic macular edema, or retinal vein occlusion) were involved.
Systematic Review Protocol Registration: PROSPERO CRD42021267854.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)