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Pseudophakia did not affect risk for neovascular AMD, study found
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Pseudophakia does not appear to increase the risk for patients to develop neovascular age-related macular degeneration, according to results of a study by researchers in Switzerland.
Florian K. P. Sutter, MD, and colleagues at University Hospital in Zurich reviewed records for all patients who underwent fluorescein angiography over a 6-year period at their hospital. Investigators identified 499 patients who had recently developed neovascular AMD in one eye and early age-related maculopathy (ARM) in the contralateral eye. They then determined these patients' lens status, either phakic or pseudophakic, according to the study.
The researchers found no significant difference in lens status between eyes with neovascular AMD and contralateral eyes with early ARM. In addition, a subgroup analysis found no significant difference in lens status between groups with large drusen, small drusen or pigmentary changes only, the authors reported.
Eyes with AMD, at the time of the onset of the disease, also had not been pseudophakic for a significantly longer period than their pseudophakic fellow eyes at the same time point, the authors noted.
"The results do not support the hypothesis that pseudophakia is a major risk factor for the development of neovascular AMD," the authors said.
The study is published in the April issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.