One-Year Results of Three Monthly Ranibizumab Injections and As-Needed Reinjections for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy in Japanese Patients

Long-term outcome of intravitreal ranibizumab treatment, compared with photodynamic therapy, in patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

“…24 Although previous reports have described that an estimated 33-43% of patients treated with IVR showed the complete regression of polyps, which seemed to be inferior to that in patients treated with PDT, [16][17][18] in the present study, 60.6% of the patients in the IVR group showed no polyp lesions on the ICGA findings, and no significant difference between the two groups was observed. The rate of polyp regression over time is difficult to compare between the two groups because ICGA was performed only at baseline and at 24 months in the IVR group although the PDT group was evaluated every 3 months.…”

“…16,17 Although our study showed favorable results, the persistent abnormal vascular networks may indicate a high risk of recurrent polypoidal lesions. 12 In fact, IVR group showed higher recurrence rate compared with PDT group during the follow-up period.…”

“…As previously described, IVR rapidly resolved the exudative findings, such as retinal edema and SRF, resulting in a good visual improvement. 16,17 We speculated that the good visual acuity continued during the 2-year period because of anatomic improvements resulting from the anti-VEGF therapy. Furthermore, although SRH occurred in two eyes in which the polyps were found to have grown based on the ICGA findings, additional IVR administrations prevented severe visual deterioration.…”

“…The treatment of PCV using ranibizumab has also yielded promising results. 16,17 Therefore, whether PDT or ranibizumab should be selected for the treatment of PCV is an important matter. A recent study described that PDT with or without ranibizumab was superior to ranibizumab alone for the complete resolution of polyp lesions, and no significant differences in the improvement of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were seen among the three groups.…”

Outcome of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy at 1 year by combined therapy of photodynamic therapy with ranibizumab and predictive factors governing the outcome

“…[3][4][5][6] Meanwhile, the role of anti-VEGFs in treating PCV has been ascertained by several prospective studies with successful outcomes. 7,8 Anti-VEGF works in a mechanism different from PDT; it reduces exudation related to vasculopathy and normalizes retinal thickness. As possible synergistic effect may result by combining the two methods, we therefore conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy of combination therapy with PDT using Visudyne and ranibizumab (Lucentis; Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA) in PCV cases.…”