SUMMARY
Purpose: to evaluate the results of treatment with bevacizumab in a group of patients with still active proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) despite previous intensive laser treatment.Methods: retrospective data review of patients managed in one of the anti-VEGF therapy clinics at the University Eye Hospital in the period from May 2011 to May 2019. Patients treated with bevacizumab due to active PDR with vitreous haemorrhage after panretinal laser photocoagulation were included. Patients with active PDR and diabetic macular oedema (DME) or any other eye disease were excluded. Age and gender of patients, type of diabetes, previous ocular treatment, visual acuity at the beginning of treatment with bevacizumab, presence of iris neovascularization, number of injections received, follow-up period, visual acuity at the last follow-up examination and possible complications were all noted.Results: Eleven patients with active PDR and recidivant vitreous haemorrhage were treated with bevacizumab. All patients had been treated by panretinal laser photocagulation previously, one patient also had vitrectomy. Average best corrected visual acuity at the beginning of treatment was 57.2 ± 25.9 ETDRS letters and at the follow-up examination 6–8 weeks after the last injection it was 64.5 ± 16.7 ETDRS letters. Patients were followed from 1 to 8 years. An average number of injections per patient per year was 2.1 ± 1.1. Four patients remained stable after discontinuing the injections, in the remaining 7 patients vitreous haemorrhage recurred. There was no progression of PDR and there were no complications of treatment during follow-up period.Conclusion: Regression of neovascularization was achieved with the use of bevacizumab in our patients and progression of PDR was prevented. Anti-VEGF therapy can be an effective option to prevent the progression of PDR in patients in whom other treatment modalities are not sufficiently effective or feasible.