Intravitreal Injections at The University of Iowa

I thought it was time to update our “numbers” from the Department of Ophthalmology. The tables show the total number of injections performed at our main clinic. The decrease in numbers for November and December are mainly due to bad weather and some older patients going south for the winter. Our retinal doctors are using more Avastin® than Lucentis®. The main reason is that Avastin seems to last longer, six weeks or more, compared to four weeks for Lucentis. Therefore a person will need to come back less often for an injection. I believe however that Lucentis works a little faster. Most people who have had an injection of Lucentis have little or no remaining fluid beneath or within their retina at one month whereas it may take six or even eight weeks for those who have received Avastin to become “dry” on the OCT. The difference may be due to the greater VEGF binding affinity of Lucentis compared to Avastin. I could envision a scheme therefore of first giving Lucentis to dry out the retina quickly and then following this first dose with Avastin to reduce the number of total injections.

I don’t know this for sure however. We will know what to do once the Comparisons of AMD Treatment Trials, (CATT), is completed since it will compare Avastin and Lucentis head to head.