Short-term impact of intravitreal ranibizumab injection on axial ocular dimension and intraocular pressure.

Objective: To evaluate the short-term impact of intravitreal ranibizumab injection on axial ocular dimension (AOD) and intraocular pressure (IOP).

Methods: A total of 31 patients who received 0.05 mL intravitreal ranibizumab injection (IRI) for age-related macular degeneration and 30 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. AODs i.e. anterior chamber depth and axial length were measured with IOL Master and IOP with noncontact tonometer before and 5 min, 30 min and 1 day after the injection.

Results: Five minutes after the injection, mean IOP increased to 24.8 ± 9.5 (13-46) mmHg from 14.5 ± 2.3 (10-18) mmHg (p < 0.001). Thirty minutes after the injection, IOP decreased a mean level of 17.3 ± 4.1 (11-26) mmHg. The change in axial length and anterior chamber depth measurements did not reach a statistical significance across the time points (p > 0.05, for all values). There was no correlation between biometric measurements and IOP before (r = 0.016, p = 0.948 for axial length and r = -0.48 p = 0.075 for anterior chamber depth) and 5 min after IRI (r = 0.049, p = 0.835 for axial length and r = -0.219 p = 0.367 for anterior chamber depth). Measurements of control group taken across same time points did not reveal statistically significant differences (p > 0.05, for all measurements).

Conclusion: Although IOP increases transiently after the intravitreal injection of 0.05 mL ranibizumab, axial length and anterior chamber depth are not affected by this amount of injection, and the increase in IOP after the injection seems to be irrelevant to AL and anterior chamber depth. Therefore, it is postulated that ranibizumab can be used safely in patients with age-related macular degeneration who have shallow anterior chamber and/or short axial length simultaneously.