Abstract
Purpose :
To report the percentage of treatment discontinuation because of inactivation of lesion and the long-term visual outcomes for patients receiving a real life setting treatment by anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods :
Retrospective chart review of 445 eyes of 400 patients who received a first anti-VEGF injection for wet AMD from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2009 at the Quinze-Vingts National Hospital (Paris), with at least 5 years of follow-up. Patients clinical characteristics, ETDRS letter score at baseline, every years and at the last follow-up were recorded. The number of injections and the date of the first and last injection were also recorded.
Results :
148 eyes of 122 patients with at least 5 years of follow-up were identified (follow-up of 77,7 month). Seventy percent of those eyes was untreated since 6 months or more at the last follow-up (inactivation of lesion). Mean duration of treatment was 47,4 months, with an average of 12 injections per eye. For the 118 remaining eyes with full visual data, mean change in letter score at 5, 6 and 7 years was respectively + 1,6 letters, -1,6 letters and – 4,7 letters. A vision of 20/40 or better was achieved in 29,4% of treated eyes..
Conclusions :
Real life setting treatment of neovascular AMD by anti-VEGF results in a stabilization of vision at 5 and 6 years of treatment. Inactivation of lesion of more than 50% of treated eyes at 5 years challenges the fixed-dosing regimen in benefit of a personalized one. Given the life expectancy of patients at the initiation of treatment, long term visual outcomes of anti-VEGF are satisfactory.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.