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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Use of Rabbit Eyes in Pharmacokinetic Studies of Intraocular Drugs
Published on: July 23, 2016
Association Between Intravitreal Aflibercept and Serious Non-ocular Haemorrhage Compared with Intravitreal
Janet Sultana1, Francesco Giorgianni2,3, Giulia Scondotto2
1Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and of Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy. jsultana@unime.it.
Introduction:
Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs aflibercept and ranibizumab are used in neovascular retinal diseases but may be associated with non-ocular haemorrhage.
Aims:
Our objective was to compare the risk of non-ocular haemorrhage with intravitreal aflibercept versus intravitreal ranibizumab and with individual intravitreal anti-VEGFs versus intravitreal dexamethasone.
Methods:
A retrospective cohort study was conducted using four Italian claims databases, covering 18 million inhabitants from 2011 to 2016. Incident aflibercept users were matched 1:4 to incident ranibizumab users. The outcome was incident non-ocular haemorrhage requiring hospitalisation. Incidence per 1000 person-years (PYs) was estimated. Patients were followed for 180 days using an intention-to-treat (ITT) approach. An as-treated (AT) approach was also employed, using grace periods of 60 or 90 days. Analyses were repeated for aflibercept versus dexamethasone and ranibizumab versus dexamethasone. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.
Results:
We identified incident users of intravitreal ranibizumab (n = 21,766), aflibercept (n = 3150) and dexamethasone (n = 3900). The incidence of haemorrhage was four events per 1000 PYs for each drug. Aflibercept was not associated with increased risk versus ranibizumab at 180 days (HR 0.97 [95% CI 0.37-2.56]). Results were consistent in the AT analysis (HR 1.19 [95% CI 0.52-2.75]). No increased risk was found for aflibercept and ranibizumab at 180 days versus dexamethasone (HR 0.70 [95% CI 0.30-2.60] and HR 0.67 [95% CI 0.33-1.38], respectively).
Conclusion:
No association was identified between intravitreal aflibercept and non-ocular haemorrhage versus ranibizumab. A comparable risk for these intravitreal anti-VEGFs and intravitreal dexamethasone was observed.
