An efficacy comparison of combination of different anti-vascular endothelial growth factors and photodynamic therapy in patients with pachychoroid neovasculopathy

Purpose

To evaluate anatomical and visual outcomes in patients who received intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents in combination with full-dose photodynamic therapy (PDT) on eyes with choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to naive pachychoroid neovasculopathy (PNV).

Materials and Methods

Medical records on 19 eyes of 19 patients whom intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB), intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR), and intravitreal aflibercept (IVA) injections were administered for CNV caused by PNV were enrolled into the study. The central macular thickness (CMT), best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) were recorded at the baseline, months 1, 3, 6, 12, and final control visit following treatment.

Results

The age average was 53.84?±?5.23 years (range, 46–62 years), and mean follow-up time was 33.42?±?9.43 months (range, 16–49 months). The change in BCVA was found statistically significant in the IVA group only during follow-up visits (p?=?0.007). Although there was no statistically significant change in CMT following IVR (360.60?±?75.64–252?±?75.04 µm) (p?=?0.077), significant changes were observed in IVB (397.14?±?122.59–275.28?±?63.82 µm) (p?=?0.004) and IVA (385.85?±?43.82–244.42?±?51.57 µm) (p?=?0.005) between the baseline and the final visit. SFCT significantly decreased following both IVR and IVA treatments (p?=?0.016, p?=?0.039, respectively). In consideration of the number of injections, significantly fewer injections were needed in the IVA group than the others (p?=?0.018).

Conclusions

Anti-VEGF agents with full-dose PDT were well tolerated for the first 3 months and were highly effective treatment option in order to naive PNV patients. However, in long-term follow-ups, the effectiveness of IVA was superior to other anti-VEGFs.