Adding topical NSAID to anti-VEGF therapeutic regimen reduced number of injections
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Fewer intravitreal injections of ranibizumab were needed to treat patients with choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration when those patients also were treated with topical bromfenac, according to a poster presentation here.
"Inflammation has a salient role in membrane formation and maintenance, so that's why we targeted this with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory," Calvin A. Grant, MD, told Ocular Surgery News during his poster session at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.
Dr. Grant conducted a controlled study that evaluated 60 patients who received Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech) injections for AMD. Thirty of the patients were treated with ranibizumab alone. The other 30 patients received Xibrom (bromfenac ophthalmic solution, Ista Pharmaceuticals) 0.09% topically twice a day, in addition to the ranibizumab injection. Researchers compared the results from both groups.
Dr. Grant said the patients were evaluated each month with optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography. Those patients who had leaking vessels were re-injected with ranibizumab.
During the 6-month interval, the ranibizumab-only patients needed an average of 4.5 injections. Patients who had bromfenac added to their treatment regimen needed an average of 1.6 injections over the same interval.
The patients in the combination group also showed a statistically significant improvement in visual acuity, Dr. Grant said.
Their mean visual acuity increased 1.2 ± 1.64 lines compared with 0.06 ± 0.66 lines in patients in the ranibizumab-only group (P = .001), according to the poster.