Silicone Free Avastin Bevacizumab

New Silicone Free Syringes for Avastin (Bevacizumab) intravitreal injections 

 Concern has been raised over the Silicon that is present   in the plastic of  standard syringes when used for intra ocular eye injections. High levels of particulate matter have been reported in the literature.  A number of sporadic cases of post injection eye inflammation have been reported and one hypothesis is that this relates to silicone from the syringes entering the eye and producing an inflammatory response.

 ITH pharma are the first company I know of to produce Avastin (Bevacizumab) in a Silicone  free syringe, thus eliminating this risk.

 The design of the syringe is different to a standard syringe used. The plunger marker is far more precise than a standard syringe and ITH pharma have measured the dose delivered as the precise 0.05ml required.

 My experience in our unit at The Hillingdon Hospital has been very positive and I feel most comfortable that we can now use a product that is free from Silicone contamination.

They are about to change their Cefuroxime antibiotic that is used in every cataract surgery case to the same syringes and we will be adopting this as our standard.