Eye doctors use Avastin to treat many kinds of retina and eye disease. For example, Avastin may treat diabetic macular edema and central retinal vein occlusion.

Avastin is a drug that is approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer. Several doctors have discovered the drug’s effectiveness in treating other diseases that are eye-related, such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

These applications are called “off-label uses” of Avastin, which means that that the use of the drug for such treatment has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Drug companies are prohibited from promoting this drug for such treatment purposes, although physicians may still use and prescribe the drug for different treatment options.

However, reports have indicated several Avastin injection eye side effects that have arisen because of the injection. According to the reports, the problem with Avastin, is not the drug in and of itself, but how the drug is delivered.

To treat eye conditions, Avastin can be administered by injection into the eye, using a syringe prepared by a pharmacist. Before Avastin is injected into a patient’s eye, the drug is inserted into a syringe that is then lubricated with silicone oil. Problems can arise if the silicone oil mixes with the drug, then makes its way into the patient’s eye. This may leave behind silicone floaters.

The silicone floaters that the drug Avastin leaves behind are one of many possible Avastin injection eye side effects. These side effects may include inflammation, cataract formation, glaucoma, hypotony, vision loss/blindness, corneal damage, retinal tearing, infection, increased intraocular pressure, and other sight-related complications.

Avastin Injection Eye Side Effects, Silicone Particles

A few problems arise with the use of lubricated syringes when treating eye diseases with Avastin. First, Avastin must be inserted into syringes by compounding pharmacies. The syringes that are then pre-filled are sent off to ophthalmologists for patient treatment. These syringes, however, may not be specially made to be inserted into a patient’s eye.

Second, Avastin Injection eye side effects may result because of the lubrication of the syringes with silicone oil.

Silicone oil may migrate from the surface of the syringe to the needle, barrel, and plunger and combine with the Avastin liquid drug itself. Moreover, chances of the drug mixing with the silicone oil increases the longer the syringes wait to be used. Additionally, the Avastin liquid drug has a higher chance of mixing with the silicone lubrication oil if the syringe is frozen before use.

When Avastin mixes with the silicone lubrication, silicone particles or floaters may show up in a patient’s eye, leading to other Avastin injection eye side effects.

Avastin Injection Eye Side Effects

The potential for a bacterial infection also increases during the preparation process for Avastin. Requiring a compound pharmacist to dispense Avastin into a syringe increases the risk that the drug will become contaminated with bacteria. Such an adverse side effect occurred in cases discovered in Florida and Tennessee in 2011.

Because of the bacterial infection, patients reportedly lost complete vision. One particular patient suffered brain damage as a result of the bacterial infection reaching and spreading to his brain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall of the syringes in the pharmacies that caused the bacterial infection shortly after.

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