Posterior sub-tenon’s bevacizumab injection in diabetic macular edema; a pilot study

Purpose To evaluate the short-term results of sub-tenon's injection of bevacizumab in patients with clinically significant macular edema (CSME). Methods In this prospective non-comparative interventional case series, sub-tenon's injection of 2.5mg/0.1ml bevacizumab was performed for eyes with CSME. Macular thickness and best corrected visual acuity measurements were performed before and one month after injections. Results Nineteen eyes of twelve patients with a mean age of 59.8±5.7years were evaluated. Thirteen eyes (68.4%) had center-involving macular edema. No significant difference was observed between pre- and post-injection central subfield retinal thickness measurements ( P =0.3). Central subfield thickness measurements improved or remained unchanged in 13 eyes (68.4%). Baseline BCVA of 0.48±0.35 LogMAR improved to 0.36±0.26 LogMAR after injection ( P =0.01). Improvement of>2 lines in BCVA was found in 5 eyes (26.3%), and no eye lost>2 lines of BCVA. No complication associated with sub-tenon's injection was observed. Conclusion Sub-tenon's injection of bevacizumab resulted in significant short-term visual improvement in eyes with CSME. Retinal thickness changes were not significant.