The Impact of COVID-19 on Intravitreal Injection Compliance.

Autor: Wasser LM; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Weill Y; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Brosh K; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Magal I; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Potter M; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Strassman I; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Gelman E; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Koslowsky M; Departments of Psychology, Ariel University, 44837 Ariel, Israel.; Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel., Zadok D; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel., Hanhart J; Department of Ophthalmology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Affiliated with the Hebrew University - Hadassah School of Medicine Jerusalem, 9103102 Jerusalem, Israel.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: SN comprehensive clinical medicine [SN Compr Clin Med] 2020; Vol. 2 (12), pp. 2546-2549. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Oct 28.
DOI: 10.1007/s42399-020-00614-4
Abstrakt: Intravitreal injections (IVI) of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents have become the most prevalent intraocular procedure as they represent the major therapeutic modality for prevalent retinal conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. Effective therapy requires adherence to a schedule of iterative IVI as well as routine clinic appointments. The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in the reduction of attendance at scheduled clinic visits and IVI. In this study, we attempted to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on compliance with anti-VEGF therapy. A total of 636 eyes received injections during a 4-week period of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Retina Clinic. The number of clinic visits for IVI during 1 month from March 15 to April 14 of 2020 was compared to a similar time period in each of the last 4 years. The study demonstrates a decrease in clinic visits for IVI when compared with the same 4-week interval in the four previous years. Based on the trend of the previous 4 years, 10.2% of the year's total was expected for this time period. Using this model, the 636 reported number of injections for the March-April 2020 period was ~ 5%. This represents a decrease of ~ 50% of the expected IVI for this time period. The COVID-19 outbreak in Israel severely impacted compliance with anti-VEGF treatments.
Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.
(© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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