Abstract
Purpose :
To assess the prognosis of subretinal fibrosis in nAMD (neovascular age-related macular degeneration) in the era of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment, in retrospective non-consecutive cases, and its importance for the visual acuity in treated patients.
Methods :
We analyzed fifteen eyes of eleven patients with exudative macular degeneration. Subretinal fibrosis developed in five of those eyes after treatment with either Bevacizumab, Ranibizumab or Aflibercept, diagnosed by multimodal imaging with OCT and OCTA. The best-corrected visual acuity before treatment ranged from 20/30 to 20/80.
Results :
During the aforementioned treatment, subretinal fibrosis occurred in five of the fifteen analyzed eyes. The final visual acuity in these patients’ affected eyes ranged from 20/100 best-corrected visual acuity to 20/400.
Conclusions :
Subretinal fibrosis results from the conversion of CNV to a fibrovascular membrane. It is driven mostly by myofibroblasts, although many types of cells may contribute to this process. The occurrence of subretinal fibrosis during the treatment of nAMD is an indicator of poor visual acuity in those patients. No treatment is yet available to prevent subretinal fibrosis. In this study, Bevacizumab, Ranibizumab, and Aflibercept were our treatment of choice for nAMD. Differences between the anti-vascular endothelial growth factors used and the frequency of subretinal fibrosis were not spotted
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.