Eye injection treatment for macular degeneration and other eye diseases
Eye injection side effects and complications
Anti-VEGFs are drugs that treat eye conditions like macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion. Some of these drugs were first FDA approved for cancerous tumor treatment but ophthalmologists quickly discovered their promise for the treatment of leaking blood vessels caused by many common eye diseases. Eye doctors are using some of these drugs “off-label” ever since. Since some are not FDA approved for use in the eye, their intraocular use is considered off-label. However, they are now a mainstream treatment for wet macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.Many “mainstream” treatments are done off-label – some examples are Aspirin, Botox and many of the common depression treatments. Eye injection side effects
Although quite rare, some complications and side effects of eye injections are being reported. Virtually every single intraocular medication has a risk of side effects. We will attempt to cover complications in this eye injections side-effects article.Let’s look at those initial eye injection side effects:
Eye injection side effects and risks
Since the beginning of mainstream injections into the eye, the occurrence of side effects and complications from them are low.In most cases, a patient who receives anti-VEGFs for an eye disease is in overall better health than a cancer patient – this would presumably reduce the risk of side effects, just on the basis of whole body health.The head-to-head data comparing similar IV medications with intraocular medication side effects show the anti-VEGF given into the eye has none of the side effects of the IV treatments.
Most common eye injection side effects
After more than 17 years of using intraocular anti-VEGFs, ophthalmologists see a very small amount of side effects. However, these are the most common eye injection complications seen:
- Red, irritated eye
- Bloodshot eye
- Small specks or bubble shapes in vision
- Elevation in eye pressure
- Tearing
Here are some very uncommon eye injection complications:
- Inflammation inside the eye
- Cataract
- Retina or vitreous bleeding
- Retinal detachment
- A decrease in eye pressure
- Cornea problems
- Intraocular infection (endophthalmitis)
Allergic reaction to eye injections
Any medication has the potential to cause allergic reactions in a small number of people. Symptoms of an allergic reaction can include a rash, hives, itching, shortness of breath, and rarely, death (extremely rare). If you have allergies to other medicines, foods, or other things in the environment, or if you have asthma, you should let your ophthalmologist or his staff know. Being prone to allergies could be a red flag for your doctor to choose a different mode of treatment.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2635984/
Please understand that this page is NOT to be taken as medical advice. You should speak to your medical doctor and/or ophthalmologist about any concerns or possible side effects or complications from anti-VEGFs or any other eye medication. JirehDesign.com assumes no responsibility in terms of the accuracy of this content. All information on this website is certainly not intended to replace or even augment the relationship between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician. JirehDesign makes no claims to medical/surgical/anatomical accuracy of the images on this website. The images are not to be used for medical advice.
