Assessing Treatment Patterns and Vision with Intravitreal Anti-VEGF in Patients with Neovascular AMD

A retrospective analysis of the IRIS® Registry assessed long-term outcomes of eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) at six or more years after treatment with intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents. The results were presented by Charles C. Wykoff, MD, PhD, at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2021 annual meeting.

Eyes with nAMD treated with anti-VEGF with at least two years follow-up formed the overall cohort (n = 254,655). Dr. Wykoff and co-author Theodore Leng, MD, assessed 168,963 eyes with visual acuity (VA) data at baseline and at one year post-treatment to determine VA changes per year. Cohorts with varying follow-up were analyzed separately for VA improvement.

According to the results, in the overall cohort, mean injection frequency was 6.1 at year 1, 5.2 at year 2, and 4.1-4.4 at years 3 to 6. Patients with 1 year and 6 years of follow-up had baseline VA of 57.4 and 61.7 letters, respectively. Overall, the researchers noted, VA increased by 2-3 letters in Year 1 but decreased by approximately 1-2 letters in each follow-up year for all cohorts.

“Patients lost VA in each follow-up year, received relatively few anti-VEGF injections in years 3-6, and experienced high rates of discontinuation,” the researchers concluded.

Source: Wykoff C, Leng T. Long-Term Treatment Patterns and Vision with Intravitreal Anti-VEGF in Patients with Neovascular AMD. Poster 326. Published for AAO 2021; Nov. 12-15, 2021, New Orleans, LA.