evaluation of the safe dose of intravitreal bevacizumab in rabbit eyes

purpose: to evaluate the safety of different doses of intravitreal bevacizumab in rabbit eyes. methods: twelve eyes of 6 rabbits underwent intravitreal injection of 5, 7.5 and 10 mg of bevacizumab. in each rabbit, one eye was considered for bevacizumab injection and the fellow eye served for either placebo injection or observation. all eyes were examined before and 1, 2, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days after intravitreal injections. electroretinography (erg) was performed before and 14 days after the injections. 28 days after the injections, all eyes were enucleated and examined with light and electron microscopy. results: in the clinical examination, significant vitritis was observed in one of the 10 mg injected eyes from first post-injection which was eliminated by the 7th day. cataract was seen in the same eye. post-injection ergs showed no significant changes. increase in muller-like cells was observed in the histological examination in the injected eyes. conclusion: intravitreal injection of 5 and 7.5 mg doses of bevacizumab was safe in rabbit eyes; however, the 10 mg dose was associated with intraocular inflammation.