This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Benefit of anti-VEGF may be judged by number of patients with particular level of vision
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The number of patients with a particular level of vision may best represent the benefit of intravitreal ranibizumab for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, according to a study.
The retrospective study included 1,086 eyes of 1,017 patients who were treated with intravitreal Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech) for neovascular AMD. Minimum follow-up was 2 years, and maximum follow-up was 4 years.
The number of patients with different levels of vision, changes in visual acuity, number of treatments received, and the number of patients remaining under follow-up were recorded over the 4 years.
Eight hundred ninety-two patients remained in follow-up at 12 months, 730 patients remained at 24 months, 468 patients remained at 36 months, and 110 patients remained at 48 months. The main reasons for the decrease in number of patients were transfer of care and death.
Over the 4 years, about 50% of patients had a visual acuity of 6/18 or better.
On average, patients received 5.79 ± 2.53 intravitreal injections by 12 months, 9.15 ± 3.79 injections by 24 months, 11.22 ± 4.92 injections by 36 months, and 13.7 ± 7.84 injections by 48 months.
The study authors said that long-term follow-up is needed because only 72 of 730 patients had been discharged by 36 months. Half of the discharged patients had vision of 60 letters or more; 83% of patients needed treatment in the third year, and 65% needed treatment in the fourth year.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts