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Intravitreal erythropoietin injection in late-stage optic neuropathy: a safety study on human
Ugur Acar1, Bekir Kucuk2, Mehmet Koray Sevinc3
1Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Kazakistan Caddesi 90/7 Emek-Ankara, Ankara, Turkey. druguracar@gmail.com.
Aim:
To evaluate the whether intravitreal erythropoietin (EPO) administration has any beneficial or adverse effect in patients with late-stage optic neuropathy (ON) or not.
Methods:
The study examined 16 eyes of 16 patients who had late-stage ON and ≥1/20 best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in their affected eye. There were nonarteritic ischemic ON in 10 (62.5%) eyes, traumatic ON in 4 (25.0%) eyes and methanol-induced ON in 2 (12.5%) eyes. Using pars plana approach, 2000 IU/0.2 ml EPO was administered intravitreally with a 30-gauge needle. Injections were administered three times with 6-week intervals. We compared the differences in the BCVA, intraocular pressure (IOP), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, pattern visual evoked potentials (p-VEP) and pattern electroretinography (p-ERG) parameters performed at initial examination and final visits.
Results:
The mean age of the patients was 52.38 ± 12.00 years; 2 (12.50%) of them were female, and 14 (87.50%) of them were male. The mean BCVA levels of 16 patients with optic atrophy were 1.12 ± 0.25 logMAR at the initial examination and 1.08 ± 0.26 logMAR at the final visit (p = 0.102). There was no statistically significant difference between the initial and final RNFL thicknesses, IOP values, p-ERG or p-VEP responses.
Conclusions:
Intravitreal EPO injections have no beneficial or detrimental effect on the late stage of ON. Further studies are necessary to compare our results in patients with ON in earlier stages.
