Photodynamic Therapy With or Without Intravitreal Bevacizumab for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy: Two Years of Follow-Up

Two-Year Outcome after Combination Therapy for Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy: Comparison with Photodynamic Monotherapy and Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Monotherapy

“…The results of the current study show that PDT and combination therapy were superior to anti-VEGF monotherapy in polyp regression and visual outcome, which is consistent with results of previous studies [8,9,10,11,12,24]. PDT monotherapy and combination therapy showed similar outcome in polyp regression and recurrence, whereas visual outcome was significantly better in the combination group.…”

“…that visual acuity significantly improved during the first year of treatment, but that the benefit decreased during the second year [32,33]. A recent study compared 2-year visual outcomes between PDT alone and combination therapy [24]. The difference in treatment efficacy between the two groups was not significant after 6 months, and they concluded that combination treatment was temporarily superior to PDT monotherapy [24].…”

“…PDT has been known to be effective for treating PCV, with its photothrombotic effect on choroidal vascular lesions with polyps [8,9,10,11,12,24]. Its direct effect on polypoidal lesions and subsequent resolution of exudative fluid might lead to a favorable long-term visual outcome.…”

Visual outcomes of vitrectomy for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy-related breakthrough vitreous haemorrhage

“…In a recent study comparing the long-term results of PDT with or without intravitreal bevacizumab injection for PCV, the polyp location was more significantly associated with the final visual improvement rather than treatment modality itself. 37 The limitations of this study include its retrospective study design, small case numbers, and potential confounding factors. Nevertheless, our study has the largest sample size and the longest follow-up duration compared with other studies.…”

Clinical Characteristics and Current Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…Anti-VEGF agents can decrease the exudation associated with PCV to improve visual acuity, but often do not close the polypoidal vascular abnormalities (Gomi et al 2008;Koizumi et al 2011); the local photochemical damage of PDT can directly close these channels (Koh et al 2012). Combining PDTwith anti-VEGF agents appears to be an effective approach (Kim and Yu 2011;Koh et al 2012;Lee et al 2012b;Tomita et al 2012). The EVEREST study randomized 61 patients with PCV to verteporfin PDT, ranibizumab 0.5 mg, or the combination, and showed that PDT with ranibizumab or PDT alone was superior to ranibizumab monotherapy in achieving polyp regression at 6 mo ( p , 0.01) (Koh et al 2012).…”