Oral Vitamin D Supplementation and Clinical Outcomes of Intravitreal Bevacizumab Injection for Macular Edema Secondary to Retinal Vein Occlusions

Purpose: to evaluate the therapeutic response of retinal vein occlusion (rvo) to intravitreal bevacizumab (ivb) with and without concomitant vitamin d supplementation. method: seventy eyes of 68 patients with macular edema associated with branch retinal vein occlusion (brvo) and central retinal vein occlusion (crvo) received three monthly ivb injections. patients with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d (25(oh) d) higher than 30 ng/ml were considered as the sufficient group. cases with serum 25(oh) d levels below 30 ng/ml were randomized into the treatment and control groups. the control group received 50,000 iu of oral vitamin d, weekly for two months. one month after the last ivb injection, best-corrected visual acuity (bcva) and central macular thickness (cmt) were measured and compared with the preinjection values. results: while 43 eyes (61.4%) of 42 patients had brvo, 27 eyes (38.6%) of 26 patients had crvo. in brvo patients, changes of cmt and bcva were not significantly different between the sufficient, control, and treatment groups (p = 0.58 and 0.64, respectively). in the crvo group, cmt reduction in the control group was significantly less than the sufficient and treatment groups (p = 0.048). in addition, improvement of bcva in the control group was significantly less (p = 0.036) than the sufficient and treatment groups. conclusion: oral vitamin d supplement therapy may improve anatomical and functional outcomes in patients with crvo and vitamin d deficiency.