Thousands of retinal-disease patients in British Columbia are being exposed to an “increased risk of severe glaucoma and peripheral blindness” because toxins may be leeching into an injectable medication that is widely used in that province, a group of top eye doctors is warning.
“This is a really important program that is providing vision-saving treatments to 20,000 patients a year across British Columbia," said Maureen O’Donnell, the executive vice-president of clinical policy, planning and partnerships at the Provincial Health Services Authority."It’s important that it does proceed.”
Doctors regularly prescribe Avastin, or bevacizumab, off-label for WMD because rigorous clinical trials have shown it to be as safe and effective as its pricier cousin. The main concern is that Avastin – which is sold in large vials geared toward oncology patients – has to be split, or compounded, at a pharmacy into smaller doses for eye injections, creating a risk for contamination.
The national group surveyed its members informally and found the problem appeared isolated to B.C., where a preliminary poll of glaucoma specialists found that between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of recent surgical glaucoma cases were among patients being treated with anti-VEGF drugs. Dr. Birt of the Canadian Glaucoma Society said the anomalies in B.C. “cry out” for a deeper investigation.
“We’re balancing this risk of glaucoma, which would then need to be treated, with a potential loss of vision if patients didn’t receive the retinal treatment,” she said.
Its the look of shock when they see what they have to pay for gas. Ok, seriously hope everyone is OK.
What eye drug is that?
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Source: VancouverSun - 🏆 49. / 61 Read more »