Intravitreal injection (IVI) is a drug delivery method, widely used in modern ophthalmology. To increase the awareness of patients receiving treatment in the healthcare system of the Russian Federation, the Expert Council on Retinal and Optic Nerve Diseases of the Association of Ophthalmologists, an All-Russian Public Organization in 2020 proposed a leaflet “Intravitreal injections (information for patients)”.Purpose: to conduct a clinical assessment of the leaflet by multicenter anonymous surveying of patients.Material and methods. Patients who had experienced IVI treatment were asked to read the leaflet for 20 minutes and then answer 12 questions of the specially designed questionnaire. 93 patients were interviewed in clinics in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk: of these, 57 (61.3%), the average age of all patients was 63.9 years, the most common diagnosis was neovascular age-related macular degeneration (52 cases, 55.9%), the experience of previous treatment ranged from 1 to 104 months.Results. The leaflet had a positive response from the patients (91.4% of the questionnaires received “excellent” and “good” ratings), 90.3% patients reported that the information contained was fully or largely consistent with their experience of IVI treatment. The overwhelming majority of respondents (88.2%) did not experience any difficulties in reading the leaflet. At the same time, the patients revealed insufficient awareness on issues related to the treatment. Also, the patients showed insufficient awareness of issues concerning their health: only 20 (21.5%) respondents could answer all five questions of the questionnaire about the understanding of the relevant information, and 31 patients (33.3%) could answer four questions. This fact emphasizes the importance of information support for the patient.Conclusion. The clinical assessment of the leaflet “Intravitreal injections (information for patients)”, which contains brief information about what the procedure is, contraindications, preparation details, symptoms of the postoperative period that require urgent assistance, allows us to recommend the leaflet for use in the clinical healthcare practice of the Russian Federation.
Purpose: to identify statistically significant factors that determine adherence to long-term follow-up on the part of patients receiving anti-VEGF therapy for macular diseases.Material and methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on 247 patients (153 women, 94 men) aged 24 to 92 years treated with anti-VEGF for “wet” age-related macular degeneration (n = 164), diabetic macular edema (n = 18), macular edema due to retinal vein occlusion (n = 35) and myopic choroidal neovascularization (n = 30). Demographic data and treatment results were statistically analyzed with the STATISTICA 13.3 program (normal conditions for variables, non-parametric and parametric criteria were determined).Results. Follow-up duration was shown to depend on gender (women are more committed to long-term treatment, p < 0.05), diagnosis (the longest follow-up related to myopic choroidal neovascularization patients), initial and final visual acuity. The comparison of subgroups of patients with the longest (over 30 months, n = 56) and shortest (till 12 months, n = 92) follow-up showed that prolonged monitoring corresponds to higher values of the initial (p < 0.01) and final (p < 0.05) visual acuity, as well as a lower average number of injections over the entire follow-up (p < 0.001) and a younger age of patients (p = 0.02).Conclusion. The follow-up duration depends on gender and age, the intensity of treatment, as well as on the initial and final visual acuity at a significance level of ˂ 0.05. Also, the follow-up duration depends on the particular diagnosis. An indicator clearly reflecting the severity of the burden of treatment is proposed: the coefficient of therapy intensity which is inversely related to the patient’s adherence to therapy.
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