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Minimally invasive brachytherapy device shows promising results for wet AMD
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A minimally invasive retrobulbarepiscleral brachytherapy device improved vision in patients with age-related macular degeneration, manufacturer Salutaris Medical Devices announced in a news release.
Results were presented at the Ophthalmology Futures European Forum.
The device is designed to let retina specialists administer brachytherapy and anti-VEGF injections in the same clinical setting. It uses a dose of episcleral brachytherapy in conjunction with intraocular anti-VEGF injections under local anesthesia.
Six patients received 24Gy radiation for 5.5 minutes via an SMD-1 brachytherapy probe adjacent to the macular sclera. Patients also received adjuvant anti-VEGF injections and re-injections as needed.
At 3 months, best corrected visual acuity improved in all patients. At 24 months, two patients required no additional anti-VEGF injections and four patients had improved or stabilized BCVA (mean 11.5 letters).
The treatment was well tolerated and posed no serious side effects, the release said.
“This device is distinguished by its precision and lesion-specific targeting, which enable the retina specialist to deliver precisely localized tissue irradiation, customized for each patient,” Laurence Marsteller, MD, Salutaris managing director, said in the release.