Purpose: To evaluate long-term effectiveness and safety of intravitreal injection of ranibizumab as a potential treatment for decreased visual acuity secondary to central retinal vein occlusion.
Methods: In this prospective interventional case series, patients with central retinal vein occlusion were administered intravitreal ranibizumab 0.5 mg at baseline and monthly for 2 additional doses. Thereafter, the patients were given additional ranibizumab if they had macular edema by optical coherence tomography, leakage during fluorescein angiography, or any intraretinal hemorrhage.
Results: There were 35 eyes of 35 patients who at baseline had a mean visual acuity of 44.2 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study letters and a mean central macular thickness of 638 μm. At 12 months, mean visual acuity of 32 eyes improved by 16.5 letters and macular thickness decreased to 164 μm (P < 0.001 vs. baseline for each). At 24 months, mean visual acuity of 24 eyes improved by 17.8 letters and macular thickness was 263 μm (P < 0.001 vs. baseline for each). Patients received an average of 10.2 injections during the first year and 6.6 injections during the second year. No cases of endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, or neovascularization were observed.
Conclusion: Intravitreal ranibizumab caused a significant improvement in visual acuity and central retinal thickness, which persisted for up to 2 years with minimal side effects.