Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave on the care and treatment situation of intravitreal injections in a German metropolitan region

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave on the care and treatment situation of intravitreal injections in a German metropolitan region

AU - Stemplewitz, Birthe

AU - Luethy, Joel

AU - Eddy, Mau-Thek

AU - Spitzer, Martin

AU - Brocks, Ulrike

AU - Kieckhoefel, Julie

AU - Schneemann, Christa

AU - Schaudig, Ulrich

AU - Schargus, Marc

N1 - © 2022. The Author(s).

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - PURPOSE: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the first coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) wave in 2020 on patients scheduled for intravitreal injections (IVI) in a German metropolitan region.METHODS: We performed a multicentre prospective survey and retrospective analysis of the records of patients treated with intravitreal injections during the 20-week period from March to July 2020 in all four hospital eye departments in the city of Hamburg using a questionnaire (on treatment adherence, SarsCoV2-related personal, familial and social data) and treatment data.RESULTS: A total of 1038 patients (2472 IVI, 1231 eyes) and 818 questionnaires were evaluated. Longer duration of therapy, lower visual acuity (VA) of the treated and higher VA of the fellow untreated eye was were associated with a higher probability of visit cancellation. Every additional year of life posed a 2.6% lower risk of noncompliance. A COVID-19 infection in the family environment displayed a 5.5-fold chance of visit cancellation. Patients treated for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) had a 36% reduced risk of visit cancellation compared to patients with diabetic macular oedema (DME).CONCLUSION: A long preceding treatment period, low VA of the treated eye, high VA of the untreated eye, COVID-19 in the family and DME were identified as risk factors for IVI visit cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compliance to treatment might be improved in the future by taking these risk factors into account when scheduling patients for IVI during the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic.

AB - PURPOSE: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the first coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) wave in 2020 on patients scheduled for intravitreal injections (IVI) in a German metropolitan region.METHODS: We performed a multicentre prospective survey and retrospective analysis of the records of patients treated with intravitreal injections during the 20-week period from March to July 2020 in all four hospital eye departments in the city of Hamburg using a questionnaire (on treatment adherence, SarsCoV2-related personal, familial and social data) and treatment data.RESULTS: A total of 1038 patients (2472 IVI, 1231 eyes) and 818 questionnaires were evaluated. Longer duration of therapy, lower visual acuity (VA) of the treated and higher VA of the fellow untreated eye was were associated with a higher probability of visit cancellation. Every additional year of life posed a 2.6% lower risk of noncompliance. A COVID-19 infection in the family environment displayed a 5.5-fold chance of visit cancellation. Patients treated for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) had a 36% reduced risk of visit cancellation compared to patients with diabetic macular oedema (DME).CONCLUSION: A long preceding treatment period, low VA of the treated eye, high VA of the untreated eye, COVID-19 in the family and DME were identified as risk factors for IVI visit cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compliance to treatment might be improved in the future by taking these risk factors into account when scheduling patients for IVI during the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic.

U2 - 10.1007/s00417-021-05521-5

DO - 10.1007/s00417-021-05521-5

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 35006330

VL - 260

SP - 1877

EP - 1886

JO - GRAEF ARCH CLIN EXP

JF - GRAEF ARCH CLIN EXP

SN - 0721-832X

IS - 6

ER -