Bacterial endophthalmitis following anti-VEGF intravitreal injections: a retrospective case series

Abstract Background To describe the incidence of endophthalmitis and the treatment outcomes of acute bacterial endophthalmitis following intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections in a Brazilian hospital. The analysis was based on the timing of infection after intravitreal injection, culture results, visual acuity, and the presence of epiretinal membrane after a 1-year follow-up period, spanning nine years. Methods This retrospective case series, conducted over a 9-year period, aimed to evaluate the treatment outcomes of acute endophthalmitis following intravitreal Bevacizumab injections. The inclusion criteria involved a chart review of 25 patients who presented clinical signs of acute endophthalmitis out of a total of 12,441 injections administered between January 2011 and December 2019. Negative culture results of vitreous samples or incomplete data were excluded. Ultimately, 23 patients were enrolled in the study. Eight patients were treated with intravitreal antibiotic injections (IVAI) using vancomycin 1.0 mg/0.05mL and ceftazidime 2.25 mg/0.05mL, while 15 patients underwent pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) followed by intravitreal antibiotic injections at the end of surgery (IVAIES). The main outcome measures were the efficacy of controlling the infection with IVAI as a standalone therapy compared to early PPV followed by IVAIES. Data collected included pre-infection and one-year post-treatment best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical coherence tomography (OCT) abnormalities, and enucleation/evisceration rates. To compare groups, Mann-Whitney and ANOVA tests were employed for statistical analysis. Results The incidence rate of bacterial endophthalmitis was 0.185% (1/541 anti-VEGF injections), with the highest infection rates observed in 2014 and 2017. Patients presented clinical symptoms between 2 and 7 days after injection. The most common isolated organisms were coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Streptococci spp. Treatment outcomes showed that both IVAI and PPV + IVAIES effectively controlled the infection and prevented globe atrophy. After one year, the PPV group with BCVA better than Light Perception had a significantly better BCVA compared to the IVAI group (p 0.003). However, PPV group had higher incidence of epiretinal membranes formation compared to the IVAI group. (P 0.035) Conclusion Anti-VEGF injections carry a risk of developing acute bacterial endophthalmitis. Isolated antibiotic therapy could be an effective treatment to control the infection, but performing PPV + IVAIES as a primary treatment showed promising results in terms of improving BCVA after one year, despite a higher rate of epiretinal membrane formation. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings

FREQUENCY OF OPHTHALMOLOGICAL POSTERIOR SEGMENT FINDINGS IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease is a systemic inflammatory disease classified as Crohn disease or ulcerative colitis. It could present extra intestinal findings, such as fever, weight loss, arthralgia, mucocutaneous lesions, hepatic, renal and ophthalmological involvement. Among ophthalmological findings, posterior segment findings are present in less than 1% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, however, these findings could bring definitive visual impairment. OBJECTIVE: Our study objective was to evaluate ocular posterior segment findings is patients with inflammatory bowel disease, through retinal mapping, color fundus retinography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography, and compare our results to literature. METHODS: We evaluated eighty patients with inflammatory bowel disease through complete ophthalmological examination and posterior segment assessment. Color fundus retinography, OCT and OCT angiography was performed with Topcon Triton (Topcon ® , Tokyo, Japan). Macula and posterior pole were evaluated with binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy and fundus biomicroscopy. RESULTS: Participants mean age was 44.16 years (18.08-68.58), 28 (35%) male patients and 52 (65%) female patients. Thirty-five (44%) with diagnosis of Crohn disease, 41 (52%) patients with diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and 3 (4%) had non-conclusive Crohn disease or ulcerative colitis classification. We found abnormal exams in 21 (26.25%) patients. CONCLUSION: Our study found similar prevalence of ophthalmological posterior segment commitment compared to previous literature prevalence. The findings were predominantly unrelated to inflammatory bowel disease, rather than primarily related to it. The most prevalent, and non-previous reported, finding was increased arteriolar tortuosity, probably occurs due to systemic vascular impairment in inflammatory bowel disease