Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the efficacy of bevacizumab dosing every 2 weeks in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) refractory to monthly dosing.
Methods :
A retrospective chart review of nvAMD patients unresponsive to conventional monthly dosing of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies which received one course of 3-4 intravitreal bevacizumab injections every 2 weeks.
Results :
Twenty seven eyes of 24 patients (13 females) were identified. Mean (±SD) age was 82.08 ± 6.85 years. All patients failed monthly bevacizumab, 17 patients (70.8%) also failed monthly ranibizumab and 3 patients (12.5%) were unresponsive to all three anti-VEGF drugs. The mean (±SD) number of prior anti-VEGF injections was 21.33 ± 6.8. Bevacizumab injections during the treatment course were administered at a mean (±SD) interval of 15.4 ± 1.37 days. Patients were examined 5.13 ± 1.67 weeks (±SD) after the last injection. The mean (±SD) logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) visual acuity did not change significantly between baseline (0.72 ± 0.59) and follow-up (0.76 ± 0.66, P = 0.56). The objective spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) parameters (mean central macular thickness and mean macular volume) did not change significantly between baseline and follow-up (P > 0.05). Six eyes (22.2%) showed anatomic improvement on SD-OCT scans, while 19 eyes (70.4%) remained stable.
Conclusions :
Biweekly bevacizumab dosing may cause anatomic benefit in some chronic cases of nvAMD refractory to anti-VEGF monthly dosing.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.