Anti-VEGF drugs are a new group of “smart” drugs that have been used in the treatment of retinal diseases for the last 10 years. These drugs have made it possible to significantly improve the treatment outcomes of hitherto incurable or difficult-to-treat retinal diseases. They are most often used in the treatment of wet macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vascular thrombosis, uveitis and myopic-degenerative changes in the center of vision, as well as some other retinal diseases.
In the Ophthalmological Polyclinic Dr. Balog, we started treatment with anti-VEGF drugs in 2012. Since the application of Avastin®, with the development of new drugs, we were among the first in the private healthcare sector in Croatia to start using Lucentis® and Eyleau®. Today we apply all intraocular drugs available in the world.
How are anti-VEGF drugs administered?
At the Ophthalmological Polyclinic Dr. Balog anti-VEGF drugs are used only and explicitly in the operating room. The whole procedure takes approximately 15 minutes. The eye is anesthetized with drops, disinfected with iodine and injected on a thin 30 G needle. The application is minimally painful, and after the treatment is over, the patient goes home immediately. Upon arrival home, the patient can remove the bandage from the eye. The patient instills antibiotic drops and artificial tears for several days. Treatment is generally applied on a monthly basis, but is also individually adjusted to standardized European therapeutic guidelines, taking into account the response of the individual patient to the prescribed therapy. Treatment should be given for months and / or years with possible longer or shorter breaks, but always with regular check-ups.
What does this mean for the patient?
In these diseases, it is necessary to give a larger number of injections in order to bring the disease under control, and it is not possible to say in advance how many injections are needed and whether the disease will recur after it has subsided after the first injection. The drugs are administered according to a specific scheme.
Why Ophthalmology Polyclinic Dr. Balog?
In the Ophthalmological Polyclinic Dr. Balog we have eight years of experience in the treatment of anti-VEGF injections. The procedure is minimally painful, fast and is performed in the operating room. We are the only ophthalmological institution in the region that uses Heidelberg SD OCT, which has extremely high accuracy and precision, and the so-called true track technology – which means that each time the retina is scanned, the device first detects 60,000 “anchor” points that it permanently stores in memory, and when re-imaging the patient’s eye, it first scans again for the same “anchor” points. Only when he recognizes all the points (all 60,000) does he do an eye scan and at the same time compare the current situation with the previous finding. It is the only device that can detect even the most subtle changes and diseases of the macula and retina, making it the best and most sensitive OCT device in the world.
