3 Things To Know About Eye Injections

The thought of having a shot in the eye can be quite frightening. While an eye injection is both scary and usually used as a last treatment option, there are several instances where one or more injections into the eye are needed.

Eye conditions like age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and optic neuritis can all be treated with an injection into the eye. The injection into the eye may only be needed once, or it may need to be repeated.
 

Benefits of an Injection into the Eye

To treat any disease on the inside of the eye, there are limited ways of reaching the area with medications. Oral medications will be transported through the bloodstream to the eye, along with the rest of the body. This can be difficult to achieve the needed dosage in the eye without causing any other unwanted side effects. Topical eye drop medications will have very limited transmission from the front of the eye into the back of the eye.

Thus, if the disease is located in the back of the eye, an injection into the eye can provide the simplest method to deliver the needed medication to the area. These injections allow a higher dose of the medication to reach the retina and the rest of the back of the eye compared to using a oral medication or topical eye drop. Another treatment option for many of the conditions that are treated with an injection into the eye is surgery to the retina. This is considerably more invasive and comes with significant risks that are much greater than those with an injection into the eye.
 

Medications that are Injected into the Eyes

There are three main categories of medications that can be injected into the eye. The most common medications injected in the eyes are anti-VEGF medications that are designed to prevent new blood vessel growth after some form of damage (a broken blood vessel or clot blocking blood flow to the retina). The three medications in this class are Avastin, Lucentis, and Eylea. Another common medication that is injected into the eyes is a steroid, usually triamcinolone. This is an anti-inflammatory medication that is designed to reduce swelling in the retina or other parts of the eye when injected. A more rarely used class of medications that can be injected are antibiotics. Antibiotics are readily available in both oral and topical forms and usually are sufficient in one of those forms. If an infection is particularly severe and in the back of the eye, a mix of antibiotics can be used to be injected directly into the eye. 
 

Conditions that May Require Eye Injections

Conditions that cause neovascularization, or new blood vessel growth, are usually treated with anti-VEGF medication injected into the eye. These conditions include macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, stroke in the eye, and Best’s Disease. Any condition that causes swelling or inflammation in the back of the eye can be treated with an injection of a steroid. Diabetic retinopathy and optic neuritis are the two main conditions that are treated this way. 

Our eye doctor at The Optical Centre in Longmont, CO excels in the prescription of glasses, contact lenses and the diagnosis of a variety of eye diseases. Call our optometrist at 303-772-6650 or schedule an eye exam appointment online if you would like to learn more about eye injections. Our eye doctor, Dr. Erica Whitmire provides the highest quality optometry services and eye exams in Longmont, Colorado and its surrounding areas.