Combined Ranibizumab and Photodynamic Therapy to Treat Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Combined customized PDT + ranibizumab treatment can achieve visual results similar to those obtained with intravitreal monotherapy with the advantage of fewer intravitreous injections and reduced potential for adverse effects.

One-Year Results of Photodynamic Therapy Combined with Intravitreal Ranibizumab for Exudative Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…Only 4 eyes (10.5%) in this study showed a recurrence of exudative changes. Mataix et al reported that 39.6% of patients were successfully treated with only a single initial dose (PDT and ranibizumab) and remained stable for 12 months [10]. Thus, combined treatment of PDT and IVR might be sufficient to scar the CNV lesion in about half of exudative AMD patients.…”

“…Ranibizumab monotherapy for exudative AMD required 5.2 ± 2.8 IVR during a followup of 12 ± 4.3 months when ranibizumab monotherapy was performed on an as-needed basis [13]. Mataix et al showed results of combined therapy of PDT and ranibizumab: in that study, 92.3% patients showed improved vision or at least avoided moderate loss of vision over 1 year with 1.22 PDT sessions and 2.37 IVR [10]. Their results were similar to our results even though they performed IVR within 48 to 60 hours after PDT.…”

Ranibizumab Monotherapy in Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration with Pigment Epithelial Detachment

“…The Verteporfin In Photodynamic Therapy Study (VIP) trial demonstrated that patients with AMD lost less lines of vision when treated with PDT [15], however Axer-Siegel et al [16] found those patients with serous PED may not benefit at all from PDT. More recent studies have reported success in decreasing the number of required anti-VEGF injections and stabilizing vision with a combination of antiVEGF and PDT including for patients with PED [17,18]. There are currently clinical trials in the pipeline investigating some theories that could result in management of this subset of patients.…”

Combined Therapies to Treat CNV in AMD: PDT + Anti-VEGF

“…Moreover, other studies report stabilizing the lesion with one single dose of PDT induction + anti-VEGF after twelve months follow-up. The percentage of cases varies in different studies ranging from 39.6% to 46% to 48% (Mataix, 2010;Smith, 2008).…”