Intravitreal Injections in Arc Sterile Setting: Safety Profile after More Than 10,000 Treatments

Claudio Furino; Maria Oliva Grassi; Vito Bini; Annalisa Nacucchi; Francesco Boscia; Michele Reibaldi; Nicola Recchimurzo; Giovanni Alessio

doi:10.1155/2020/3680406

Intravitreal Injections in Arc Sterile Setting: Safety Profile after More Than 10,000 Treatments

J Ophthalmol. 2020 Apr 15:2020:3680406. doi: 10.1155/2020/3680406. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Claudio Furino¹, Maria Oliva Grassi¹, Vito Bini¹, Annalisa Nacucchi¹, Francesco Boscia², Michele Reibaldi³, Nicola Recchimurzo¹, Giovanni Alessio¹

Affiliations

¹ Eye Clinic, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Policlinico, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
² Eye Clinic, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
³ Eye Clinic, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.

Abstract

Purpose: To report the occurrence of endophthalmitis and other complications after intravitreal injections (IVIs) in the Arc Sterile setting.

Methods: A retrospective study that enrolled all patients who underwent IVIs between November 2017 and March 2019, collecting data about the patient's gender and age, type of injected drug, diagnosis, other ocular pathologies, physician and possible occurrence of endophthalmitis, or other complications.

Results: Ten thousand and eighty-three IVIs were performed during the study period, involving 2014 eyes of 1,670 patients with an average age of 71.37 ± 11.63 years. The injected drugs included ranibizumab (54.6%), aflibercept (38.0%), dexamethasone (6.7%), pegaptanib (0.3%), bevacizumab (0.4%), and ocriplasmin (0.01%). The diagnosis included neovascular age-related macular degeneration (859), myopic choroidal neovascularization (154), diabetic macular edema (576), retinal vein occlusion (203), and miscellaneus diagnosis (222). No cases of endophthalmitis were recorded. One hundred and sixty-nine cases of ocular hypertension were detected, while the most frequent complication was subconjunctival hemorrhage, identified after 1,180 IVIs. The residents performed over 80% of IVIs, but there was no statistically significant difference in incidence of complications between the residents group and consultants group.

Conclusions: Arc Sterile seems to be a safe setting in which IVIs can be carried out, regarding infective risk, and it is easy to set up compared to operation theatre and useful to improve intravitreal injections governance.