Intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents for ocular vascular diseases: Clinical practice guideline

Purpose: To provide the clinical recommendations for the administration of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs especially bavacizumab for ocular vascular diseases including diabetic macular edema, neovascular age-related macular degeneration, myopic choroidal neovascularization, retinal vein occlusion and central serous chorioretinopathy. Methods: Twenty clinical questions were developed by the guideline technical committee. Relevant websites and databases were searched to find out the pertinent clinical practice guidelines to answer the questions. The technical committee provided possible answers (scenarios) according to the available evidences for each question. All scenarios along with their levels of evidence and the supported articles were sent to the experts for external review. If the experts did not agree on any of the scenarios for one particular clinical question, the technical committee reviewed all scenarios and their pertinent evidences and made the necessary decision. After that, the experts were asked to score them again. All confirmed scenarios were gathered as the final recommendations. Results: All the experts agreed on at least one of the scenarios. The technical committee extracted the agreed scenario for each clinical question as the final recommendation. Finally, 56 recommendations were developed for the procedure of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection and their applications in the management of ocular vascular diseases. Conclusion: The implementation of this guideline can standardize the management of the common ocular vascular diseases by intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF agents. It can lead to better policy-making and evidence-based clinical decision by ophthalmologists and optimal evidence based eye care for patients. © 2018 Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research

Intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents for ocular vascular diseases: Clinical practice guideline

Purpose: To provide the clinical recommendations for the administration of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs especially bavacizumab for ocular vascular diseases including diabetic macular edema, neovascular age-related macular degeneration, myopic choroidal neovascularization, retinal vein occlusion and central serous chorioretinopathy. Methods: Twenty clinical questions were developed by the guideline technical committee. Relevant websites and databases were searched to find out the pertinent clinical practice guidelines to answer the questions. The technical committee provided possible answers (scenarios) according to the available evidences for each question. All scenarios along with their levels of evidence and the supported articles were sent to the experts for external review. If the experts did not agree on any of the scenarios for one particular clinical question, the technical committee reviewed all scenarios and their pertinent evidences and made the necessary decision. After that, the experts were asked to score them again. All confirmed scenarios were gathered as the final recommendations. Results: All the experts agreed on at least one of the scenarios. The technical committee extracted the agreed scenario for each clinical question as the final recommendation. Finally, 56 recommendations were developed for the procedure of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection and their applications in the management of ocular vascular diseases. Conclusion: The implementation of this guideline can standardize the management of the common ocular vascular diseases by intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF agents. It can lead to better policy-making and evidence-based clinical decision by ophthalmologists and optimal evidence based eye care for patients. © 2018 Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research

Demographic characteristics and inci-dence of ocular disease in patients at Shahid Rahnemoon Hospital (Yazd, Iran)

The type and frequency of diseases in a com-munity represents genetic structure, nutritional status, social health standards, and the cultural traditions of the community. In addition, the different types of disorders that are common in an area are directly or indirectly under environ-mental effects. The epidemiological information of these disorders is important when developing health services programs and influences the way medical services are offered.The aim of the present study was to determine the epidemiology and frequency of ocular diseas-es in patients referred to the Ophthalmic Clinic of Shahid Rahnemoon Hospital, Yazd, Iran. A cross sectional descriptive study was done by means of a questionnaire and statistical analysis on the data collected. A total number of 994 patients were surveyed and more than 70 types of disorders were diagnosed. The disorders were classified into 15 main groups. The most commonly detect-ed conditions in the patients were refractive errors and conjunctival diseases (16.9% each), followed by disorders of the lens (12.7%), retinal diseases (11.9%), eye traumas (11.9%), eyelid disorders (7.3%) and glaucoma (5.2%). The majority of the patients were more than 40 years old. Regarding their education, most of them were illiterate. Most of the patients were housewives. Our results showed that the majority of the patients were liv-ing in urban areas. An association of diabetes and hypertension was seen more with retinal disease than with other conditions