Purpose: To report long-term results of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in young patients affected by Best vitelliform macular dystrophy (VMD) complicated by choroidal neovascularization (CNV).
Methods: We evaluated a group of 30 VMD patients with confirmed mutations in the BEST1 gene. Five of these patients had been diagnosed with CNV when younger than 15 years of age and three of them were treated by PDT. After the treatment they were followed for an average period of 77 months (range 62-99).
Results: In all the treated eyes visual acuity was stable during the first year of follow-up and then slowly improved even some years after the treatment. The improvement in visual acuity was associated with the development of fibrous tissue in the macula.
Conclusions: PDT was a safe procedure in our series of pediatric patients with VMD complicated by CNV. It was followed by a CNV regression and a consequent improvement in visual acuity which continued to progress even several years after the treatment.
Keywords: Best vitelliform macular dystrophy; choroidal neovascularization; photodynamic therapy.