Purpose To quantify the shrinking in outpatient and intravitreal injections’ volumes in a tertiary referral retina unit secondary to virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we reviewed the charts of all patients who had a visit at a medical retina referral center during the Italian quarantine (from 9th of March 2020 to 3rd of May 2020). Number and characteristics of these data were compared with data from the same period in 2019 (from 9th of March 2019 to 3rd of May 2019). Results In the 2019 study period, there were 303 patients attending clinic (150 males, 153 females). In the 2020 study period, patients decreased to 75 (48 males, 27 females; P = 0.022 comparing gender prevalence between the two periods) with an overall reduction of 75.2%. Mean ± SD age was 71.4 ± 14.3 years (range 25–93 years) in the 2019 study period and 66.7 ± 13.1 years (range 32–91 years) in the 2020 study period ( P = 0.005). The largest drop in outpatient volume was recorded in AMD patients (− 79.9%). Regarding the intravitreal treatments, there were 1252 injections in the 2019 period and 583 injections in the 2020 period (− 53.6% in injections). The drop in intravitreal treatments was larger in patients with posterior uveitis, retinal vein occlusion, and diabetes (− 85.7%, − 61.9%, and − 59.6%, respectively). Conclusion The volume of outpatient visits and intravitreal injections declined during the COVID-19 quarantine. The short- and long-term impacts are that routine in-person visits and intravitreal injections are expected to increase after the quarantine and, even more, after the pandemic.

Purpose To estimate the impact of delayed care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the outcomes of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods Consecutive patients with diagnosis of neovascular AMD were consecutively enrolled between March 9, 2020, and June 12, 2020, (during and immediately after the Italian COVID-19 quarantine). During the inclusion (or pandemic) visit (V 0), patients received a complete ophthalmologic evaluation, including optical coherence tomography (OCT). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCT findings from the two preceding visits (V −1 and V −2) were compared with data at V 0. Results One-hundred patients (112 eyes) were enrolled in this study. The time interval between following visits was 110.7 ± 37.5 days within V 0 and V −1 and 80.8 ± 39.7 days within V −1 and V −2 , respectively (P < 0.0001). BCVA was statistically worse at the V 0 visit as compared with the immediately preceding (V −1) visit (0.50 ± 0.43 LogMAR and 0.45 ± 0.38 LogMAR at the V 0 and V −1 visits, respectively; P = 0.046). On structural OCT, 91 out of 112 (81.2%) neovascular AMD eyes displayed the evidence of exudative disease activity at the V 0 visit, while 77 (68.7%) eyes exhibited signs of exudation at the V −1 visit (P = 0.022). No differences in terms of BCVA and OCT findings were detected between the V −1 and V −2 visits. In multiple regression analysis, the difference in BCVA between V 0 and V −1 visits was significantly associated with the interval time within these two visits (P = 0.026). Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic-related postponement in patient care proved to be significantly associated with worse short-term outcomes in these patients. Keywords COVID-19. Retina. Neovascular AMD. Outcome This is part of a topical collection on Perspectives on COVID-19

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