The role of faricimab (Vabysmo) in the management of retinal vascular diseases: Experience from Nasiriyah, Iraq

The aim of the study was to detect the effect of intravitreal injection of Faricimab (Vabysmo) on treatment of retinal vascular diseases by reduction of central macular thickness measured by OCT and improvement in LogMAR Visual Acuity. In this observational study, 20 eyes (16 patients) with retinal vascular diseases, (including 14 eyes with diabetic macular edema and 6 eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration) received intravitreal injection of Faricimab 6 mg. The outcome measures included central macular thickness as measured by OCT and LogMAR visual acuity. Reinjection monthly was done. A total of 4 months post treatment, 50% of eyes had significant improvement in CMT on OCT, 30% of eyes had moderate improvement, 10% mild improvement and 10% no improvement(unchanged). The mean LogMAR visual acuity improvement 0.8 in ten eyes at final visit, 0.6 in Six eyes, 0.4 in Two eyes and unchanged in two eyes. Number of injections ranged from 1 to3 injections. Patients in Nasiriyah, Iraq, have restricted access to anti-VEGF medications like Eylea and Avastin. The bispecific antibody Faricimab (Vabysmo), which targets VEGF-A and Angiopoietin-2, may decrease the frequency of injections and increase their effectiveness with better reduction in CMT with improvement in visual acuity.