Anti-VEGF therapy not as harmful as previously thought

Anti-VEGF therapy doesn’t not significantly affect visual acuity and metamorphopsia in patients treated for retinal pigment epithelium tears in eyes, according to a paper featured in Retina.

A team led by Dr C.A. Moreira Jr, Hospital de Olhos do Parana and Department of Ophthalmology, Universidade Federal do Parana, Curitiba, Brazil, conducted a retrospective study on five patients with retinal pigment epithelial tears after anti-VEGF injections.

Macular findings were obtained by angiography and optical coherence tomography. An anti-VEGF drug was re-injected until the membranes ceased leaking.

Mean visual acuity after the tear was 20/160 and final visual acuity was 20/60. The amount of anti-VEGF ire-injections varied from two to eight during the follow-up period. Reduced fluid and remodelling of the torn retinal pigment epithelium was demonstrated by the results of the OCT analysis.

The long-term results with repeated anti-VEGF are not as damaging and previously suggested in similar studies. Visual acuity and metamorphopsia improve over time if the neovascular membrane is inactive.

To read the abstract please click here.