Different Clinical Courses on Long-Term Follow-Up of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Patients Treated with Intravitreal Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Injections

Purpose: To assess the long-term outcome of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treated with multiple intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections. Methods: All patients treated with over 30 intravitreal anti-VEGF injections for neovascular AMD between 2007 and 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: A total of 67 eyes received 2,960 (mean 45 +/- 9.1 per eye) anti-VEGF injections. Eyes with good final visual acuity (VA) had better initial VA (p = 0.020) and maintained it. Patients with moderate-to-poor final VA improved significantly after the first 3 monthly injections, and thereafter deteriorated consistently, mostly during the third (p = 0.019) and fourth (p = 0.006) years. Eyes with worse final VA had more intraretinal fluid (p = 0.05) and subretinal fibrosis (p = 0.04). Conclusion: Two distinct clinical courses were identified: good final VA was associated with initial and long-term stability of good VA; eyes with worse final VA had worse initial VA, progressive deterioration following the initial improvement, and more scarring and intraretinal fluid. This probably underscores the long-term benefits of early detection and treatment. (C) 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel