title: Efficacy of topical bevacizumab in high-risk corneal transplant survival.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of topical Bevacizumab in preventing neovascularisation on high risk corneal grafts.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a randomized, controlled, parallel group study, carried out from February 2008 to April 2012 (51 months) at Isra Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology and Yasin eye hospital, Karachi. Eyes with high risk corneal transplantation with corneal neovascularization were included in this interventional study/randomized clinical trial. Patients were randomly allocated to 2 groups. Group A and Group B. After penetrating keratoplasty, group A patients received topical bevacizumab (2.5%, 25 mg/ml) which was self-administered 4 times a day for 24 week while group B patients received only sham eye drops. Group B was the control group. Corneal neovascular invasion area i.e. the fraction of area on transplanted cornea in which vessels were present was measured using mathematical software program MatLab. Data analyses was done using SPSS version 19. Frequencies of age gender and groups were measured. Neovascular invasion area and change in visual acuity was compared between the 2 groups using paired t test . P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 2 groups mean Corneal neo vascular invasion area was minimum in group A (6.23%) while in group B it was (26.7%). Maximum number of patients (26) attained visual acuity of 6/36 or better in the topical bevacizumab group compared to 17 sham group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When topical Bevacizumab is used, it reduces the recurrence of neovascularisation and thus helps increasing the frequency of graft survival in cases of high risk corneal transplants.
authors.affiliation: Nasir Bhatti, Isra Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology and Yasin Eye Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nasir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bhatti
authors.affiliation: Umair Qidwai, Isra Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology and Yasin Eye Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Umair
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Qidwai
authors.affiliation: Munawar Hussain, Isra Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology and Yasin Eye Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Munawar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: Asif Kazi, Isra Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology and Yasin Eye Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Asif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kazi
keywords: Corneal neovascularization; Topical