Intravitreal Injections

What are Intravitreal Injections?

There are different ways of administering medication to the eye:

• using drug-containing eye drops

• injecting drugs around the eye

• injecting drugs into the eye

Each way has its own benefits and risks. For example, using eye drops is easy and convenient, while injections require coming to the clinic. However, eye drops on the surface of the eye may not deliver enough drug to the retina that is deep inside the eye.

This is the case in conditions like wet age-related macular degeneration (or AMD), diabetic macular oedema (or DMO) and retinal vein occlusion (or RVO). The drugs need to be delivered close to the retina in order to work effectively. Drugs that can be injected into the eye fall into two categories: anti-VEGF and steroid treatments.

VEGF is a chemical that is produced in AMD, DMO and RVO. It causes normal blood vessels to leak and abnormal blood vessels to grow. Anti-VEGF drugs such as ranibizumab (Lucentis®), aflibercept (Eylea®) and bevacizumab (Avastin®) prevent this for a period of time.

Similarly, normal blood vessels can leak in inflammation. Steroid treatment such as dexamethasone (Ozurdex®) and fluocinolone (Iluvien®) may reduce this in AMD, DMO and RVO.

What does intravitreal injection surgery involve?

Intravitreal injections are performed with local anaesthetic drops as an outpatient procedure. After the surface of your eye is numbed, a cleaning solution is used to disinfect the area. Your eyelids are gently held open and the drug is delivered through the white of the eye. The entire process lasts around 5 minutes. There is no special aftercare required.