Purpose: To report the long-term clinical outcomes for patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) who received anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy as part of a standardised treatment protocol in a real-world setting.
Patients and methods: This is a retrospective audit of all treatment-naïve patients with nAMD who commenced a pro re nata (PRN) treatment regimen of intravitreal Ranibizumab from January to December 2009 and completed 8 years of follow-up in one single-treatment centre. Electronic medical notes were reviewed to evaluate the outcome measures. Outcome measures included progression of visual acuity (VA), central retinal thickness (CRT) and treatment frequency.
Results: 95 eyes from 86 patients had complete data for 8 years of follow-up. Baseline median CRT was 295µm [IQR 254-349] and improved to 209µm [IQR 182-254] in year 8 (p<0.001); baseline median VA was 61 ETDRS letters which increased to 70 letters post-loading however was reduced to 55 letters by year 8 (mean VA change from baseline was -9.1 letters); 47.4% had stable or improved vision, 10.5% gained ≥15 letters and 33.7% had lost ≥15 letters. The highest visual gain was achieved after the initial loading-phase, with a subsequent steady decline, 26.3% (compared to baseline 33.4%) achieved driving vision standard. Median injection frequency was 6 (range 3-10) in year 1 and 3 injections (range 0-10) in year 8. 51.6% of eyes required at least one injection each year and only 34.7% required no injections in year 8.
Conclusion: Our real-world nAMD treatment cohort using Ranibizumab PRN regimen achieved an encouraging almost 50% stable or improved VA at year 8 and total injections of 31.6 injections per patient over an 8-year period.
Keywords: 8 year; Ranibizumab; age-related macular degeneration; real-world.
© 2019 Horner et al.