A meta-analysis gauged the geographic atrophy (GA) incidence following intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents in eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The results were presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2021 annual meeting.
Arshia Eshtiaghi, BS, and colleagues queried Medline, Embase and Central databases from inception to May 2020, focused on identifying studies reporting on the development of GA in eyes with nAMD following anti-VEGF therapy. In total, this analysis comprised 31 articles and 4,609 study eyes. Each eye received an average of 17.7 injections over approximately 35 months.
According to the results, in eyes with GA at baseline, GA incidence was 30.5% ± 14.4% at the conclusion of follow-up. Also, in eyes with baseline GA, 85.2% ± 21.9% had GA progression over follow-up, with a mean GA growth rate of 0.97 mm2 per year. The investigators noted that there was a positive, moderate linear correlation between the mean total number of injections and GA incidence at final follow-up (R² = 0.30; P = .01). Overall, the analysis found that a monthly treatment regimen was correlated with a notably higher risk for GA development relative to a pro re nata (PRN) regimen.
“There is a high GA incidence following anti-VEGF therapy in nAMD, and we found an association between the frequency and number of treatments with anti-VEGF agents and the development of GA,” the researchers concluded.
Source: Eshtiaghi A, et al. GA Following Anti-VEGF for AMD: A Meta-Analysis. Poster 353. Published for AAO 2021; Nov. 12-15, 2021, New Orleans, LA.
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