Intraoperative Bevacizumab Administration to Decrease Postoperative Corneal Haze During Laser Surface Ablation
Narrative Responses:
Purpose
Our previous study showed that intraoperative bevacizumab administration decreased central corneal haze and apoptotic keratocyte number after surface ablation (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012; 53:7645–7653) in rat model. We attempted to evaluate the efficacy of intraoperative bevacizumab to decrease the postoperative corneal haze during surface ablation.
Methods
Fourteen eyes out of 7 patients were randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 1.25% bevacizumab (Avastin; Roche Diagnostics) application and the fellow eye was treated with 0.02% mitomycin C (MMC) application. Immediately after surface ablation, a sponge soaked with bevacizumab or MMC was placed onto each exposed corneal bed in the both eyes. The time length of eye contact with bevacizumab or MMC (10 to 50 seconds) was determined according to the ablation depth. Postoperative information regarding BCVA, UCVA, IOP, refraction, and slit lamp photography was obtained at 7 days and 1 and 3 months after surgery.
Results
The preoperative spherical equivalent, mean keratometric value, and keratometric astigmatism of bevacizumab and MMC groups was -5.1±2.4 and -4.9±2.4 diopters (D), 42.9±2.1 and 42.4±2.3 D, and 0.55±0.39 and 0.48±0.13 D, respectively, which did not significantly differ (P>0.05). The epithelial wound healing time did not differ between two groups. There were no significant differences in postoperative UCVA, BCVA, IOP, mean keratometric value, keratometric astigmatism, and spherical equivalent between two groups for 3 month after surgery (P>0.05). In terms of postoperative haze, there was less subepithelial haze in the bevacizumab-administered eye compared with the other MMC-administered eye in two patients (28.6%).
Conclusion
Bevacizumab can be an alternative to MMC during surface ablation to prevent postoperative corneal haze.