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 2.5 mg/0.1 ml 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 ± 5.7 years 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.