Comparison of the Efficacy and Safety of Intravitreal Conbercept with Intravitreal Ranibizumab for Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Introduction. This meta-analysis aimed to compare the therapeutic effect and safety of intravitreal conbercept (IVC) versus intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) in treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods. Relevant studies were identified through systemic searches of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Ovid, CNKI, and Wanfang database up to 28 February 2019. Changes in central retinal thickness (CRT) in μm and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in logMAR equivalents at 1, 3, and 6 months after initial treatment were performed by pooled analysis. Adverse events (AEs) were evaluated. Results. Eight articles involving 588 patients with DME were identified for this meta-analysis. The results showed that IVC significantly improved BCVA compared with IVR at 6 mo (SMD = −0.74 95% CI: −1.28 to −0.2; p=0.029) in patients with DME. IVC was superior to IVR in reducing central retinal thickness (CRT at 1 mo (p<0.0001), 3 mo (p=0.025), and 6 mo (p=0.019)) from baseline with statistical significance. For AEs, the pooled results showed that no significant difference in the risk of intraocular pressure increased (OR = 1.71; 95% CI: 0.55 to 5.25; p=0.352) or conjunctival hemorrhage (OR = 0.89; 95% CI: 0.34 to 2.34; p=0.65) between two groups. Conclusions. This meta-analysis showed that IVC trended to be more effective than IVR in terms of functional and anatomic outcomes for treating DME.

Conbercept for Treatment of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Visual Impairment due to Diabetic Macular Edema or Pathologic Myopia Choroidal Neovascularization: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Although several systematic reviews of IVC have been published (Zhang et al, 2018a;Cui and Lu, 2018;, 2018; Liu and Li, 2019;Sun et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020), their limitations and biases were considered uncontrollable, which could result in unreliability of the conclusions. Thus, all studies included in these reviews had been rechecked thoroughly (Supplementary Table S6).…”

“…Although several attempts on the efficacy and safety of conbercept have been published (Zhang et al, 2018a;Cui and Lu, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Liu and Li, 2019;Sun et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020), no study has pooled up-to-date data and comprehensively summarized the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that used conbercept for the treatment of nAMD, DME, and pmCNV. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether conbercept, compared with other therapeutic regimens, is more beneficial for patients with nAMD, DME, and pmCNV in terms of efficacy, safety, compliance, and pharmacoeconomic evaluations.…”

Intravitreal Therapy for Diabetic Macular Edema: An Update

“…The results of a meta-analysis, which included 588 patients, compared the effect and safety of conbercept and ranibizumab in the treatment of DME suggested that intravitreal injections of conbercept were superior to ranibizumab in both reducing CRT and improving BCVA [ 93 ]. Regarding safety, the pooled results showed that there was no significant difference in the risk of intraocular pressure increase (or conjunctival hemorrhage between two groups [ 93 ].vd…”

“…(1) Safety . The most frequently reported ocular adverse event was conjunctival hemorrhage [ 88 – 93 ]. The incidence and type of adverse events did not significantly differ from those previously reported for other anti-VEGF therapies (Sections 3.1.2 to 3.1.4 ).…”

Treatment of Macular Edema in Vascular Retinal Diseases: A 2021 Update

“…A meta-analysis comparing the efficacies of conbercept and ranibizumab for DME treatment demonstrated that intravitreal conbercept was significantly superior to ranibizumab in reducing CMT; however, no significant difference in visual improvement was observed [42]. The effects and safety of conbercept and ranibizumab in DME treatment were also compared in a recent meta-analysis by Sun et al, and the results demonstrated that intravitreal injections of conbercept were superior to ranibizumab in both reducing central retinal thickness and improving BCVA [43].…”