Short-Term Intraocular Pressure Trends

Purpose: To report the trends in intraocular pressures (IOP) following intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (Lucentis) for the treatment of exudative age-related macular degeneration. Methods: Study of 33 patients who underwent 33 consecutive ranibizumab injections. Analysis of the short-term effect of ranibizumab injections on IOP and correlation with age, gender, pseudophakia, history of glaucoma, refractive error, and previous intravitreal injections was performed. Results: Baseline IOP was 16.03 ± 3.396 mm Hg (mean ± standard deviation) with a median of 16 mm Hg and a range of 10 to 23 mm Hg. Immediate post-injection IOP was 34.787 ± 9.08 mm Hg with a median of 34 mm Hg and a range of 10 to 56 mm Hg. All IOP measurements were below 25 mm Hg within 45 minutes of intravitreal injection. Baseline IOP, age, gender, history of glaucoma, refractive error, and previous intravitreal injections were of no predictive value in determining post-injection IOP. Patients who were phakic versus pseudophakic may have a slight correlation of having a higher IOP after injection. Conclusions: IOP returned to below 25 mm Hg in all patients within 45 minutes after ranibizumab injection. Post-injection IOP cannot be predicted by age, gender, baseline IOP, history of glaucoma, number of previous intravitreal injections, or refractive error. Phakia may have some correlation to increased post-injection IOP but more research is needed