Effect Of Verteporfin Photodynamic Therapy Alone Or Combination With Intravitreal Injection Of Anti-VEGF (Bevacizumab/ Ranibizumab) In Age-Related Macular Degeneration

1. Min-Yu Huang
2. Chen-Yu Hsu
3. Horng-Jiun Wu
4. Wen-Chen Wu

Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan

Purpose: To report the visual acuity improvement for eyes of AMD patients treated with with verteporfin photodynamic therapy (PDT) alone, or combined with intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF(bevacizumab(AV), or ranibizumab(LU))

Methods: Retrospective, case-series database study including 2 surgeons operating on 22 eyes of 20 AMD patients. Patients are treated with either PDT alone(3 eyes) or following IVI of anti-VEGF(either bevacizumab 0.06ml → 15 eyes, or ranivbizumab 0.10ml → 4 eyes). Main outcome measure is visual acuity improvement(VA, measured by logMAR) on 1, 2, and 3 months postoperatively.

Results: Although there are some VA improvement (logMAR) inside PDT, PDT+AV, PDT+LU groups separately--either in 1,2, and 3 months postoperatively, it fails to demonstrate statistical significance on VA improvement(logMAR) between any two of the three groups.(P value range from 0.20 to 0.51).

Conclusions: There are no significant improvement of visual acuity(logMAR) in patients using combination therapy over PDT monotherapy.