Abstract
Purpose: :
Choroidal neovascularization complicating pathologic myopia is a common cause of vision loss in young patients. Actually, the main treatments validated for these patients are photodynamic therapy and the surgical approach. Our purpose was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravitreal ranibizumab injections in the treatment of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) related to pathologic myopia
Methods: :
28 patients presenting pathologic myopia were included in a prospective, monocentric, consecutive, interventional case series. Diagnosis of CNV complicating high myopia was performed on fluorescein angiography, and confirmed on indocyanin angiography and spectral domain optical coherence tomography for each patient. Other etiologies of CNV were excluded from this study.
Results: :
28 eyes of 28 patients (sex ratio 1/3, mean age 58 years old ±15 years) presenting high myopia (mean refractive error: 12 D; range 5 to 21 D) were included in this study. Mean visual acuity at inclusion was 20/80 in the study eye. At 6 months and 8 months mean visual acuity was 20/63. Results at 8 months showed a mean visual acuity improvement of 3 lines ETDRS for a mean number of injections per eye of 2.6 (range 1-7). A significant reduction of leakage was noted on late frames of fluorescein angiography after ranibizumab injections, as well as a decrease of retinal thickness after treatment by ranibizumab. No cases of severe visual acuity loss and no cases of serious ocular side effects were observed during the follow-up.
Conclusions: :
The results of intravitreal injections of ranibizumab as treatment of CNV complicating myopia are encouraging by their safety and efficacy in this cohort of patients. However, further prospective long-term follow-up is necessary to evaluate safety and efficacy of intravitreal ranibizumab in the treatment of myopic CNV.
Keywords: myopia • neovascularization • macula/fovea