EXIT STRATEGY IN A TREAT-AND-EXTEND REGIMEN FOR EXUDATIVE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION.

Arendt, Petra; Yu, Siqing; Munk, Marion; Ebneter, Andreas; Wolf, Sebastian; Zinkernagel, Martin (2019). EXIT STRATEGY IN A TREAT-AND-EXTEND REGIMEN FOR EXUDATIVE AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION. Retina - the journal of retinal and vitreous diseases, 39(1), pp. 27-33. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins 10.1097/IAE.0000000000001923

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PURPOSE

To evaluate the outcome of an exit strategy in a treat-and-extend regimen for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

METHODS

Five hundred and ninety-eight eyes of 488 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration receiving intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections according to a treat-and-extend regimen were included in this retrospective study. A treat-and-extend regimen with either interval extension by 2 weeks or shortening by 1 week was used. "Exit criteria" were defined as 3 consecutive injections 16 weeks apart with stable findings after which the patient was exited from treatment and followed up at 3 to 4 monthly intervals without therapy. Best-corrected visual acuity, central retinal thickness at treatment initiation and termination, incidence of recurrence after treatment termination, presence of characteristics in the optical coherence tomography, duration of therapy, number and intervals of injections were analyzed.

RESULTS

Seventeen percent of all included eyes met the exit criteria. The mean number of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections was 23.7 ± 14.7 with a mean treatment duration of 4.5 ± 2.5 years. Twelve percent reached exit with the minimal number of injections. Thirteen percent had recurrent disease after a mean of 37 ± 16 weeks. In the subgroup with recurrent disease, rate of pigment epithelial detachment at treatment termination was significantly higher than without recurrence (77% vs. 30%, P = 0.0018) with a significant higher proportion of serous pigment epithelial detachment (31% vs. 7%, P = 0.0247).

CONCLUSION

The high percentage of patients meeting the exit criteria and the relatively low incidence of recurrences underline the usefulness of a predefined exit strategy. However, in a subgroup of patients, continuation of therapy may be advisable.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Ophthalmology

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)

UniBE Contributor:

Arendt, Petra, Yu, Siqing, Munk, Marion, Ebneter, Andreas, Wolf, Sebastian (B), Zinkernagel, Martin Sebastian

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0275-004X

Publisher:

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

Language:

English

Submitter:

Sebastian Wolf

Date Deposited:

11 Dec 2017 10:46

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:29

Publisher DOI:

10.1097/IAE.0000000000001923

PubMed ID:

29135888

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.107263

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/107263

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