Clinical Ophthalmology (Apr 2018)
Anti-VEGF treatment of macular edema associated with retinal vein occlusion: patterns of use and effectiveness in clinical practice (ECHO study report 2)
Abstract
J Michael Jumper,1 Pravin U Dugel,2,3 Sanford Chen,4 Kevin J Blinder,5 John G Walt6 On behalf of the ECHO Study Group 1West Coast Retina Medical Group, San Francisco, CA, USA; 2Retinal Consultants of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, USA; 3USC Roski Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 4Orange County Retina, Santa Ana, CA, USA; 5The Retina Institute, St Louis, MO, USA; 6Allergan plc, Irvine, CA, USA Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and injection frequency of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antagonists in the treatment of macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in clinical practice.Patients and methods: A multicenter retrospective study of the medical records of 165 patients (95 branch RVO, 70 central RVO) treated with at least three anti-VEGF injections in the study eye was conducted. Available data collected for at least 6 months after the first injection included Snellen best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT) by time-domain optical coherence tomography (TD-OCT) or spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT), anti-VEGF injections, other treatments/procedures for RVO, and adverse events.Results: At baseline prior to anti-VEGF treatment, mean BCVA was 20/80 Snellen equivalent and mean CRT was 499 µm. Mean number of anti-VEGF injections received was 7.1 during the first year, 5.4 during the second year, and 5.9 during the third year; 51.3% (842/1,641) of injections were ranibizumab, 44.1% (724/1,641) were bevacizumab, and 4.6% (75/1,641) were aflibercept. One in five patients received concomitant focal laser treatment. The percentage of patients achieving both BCVA of 20/40 or better and CRT ≤250 µm on TD-OCT or ≤300 µm on SD-OCT at the same visit (primary endpoint) was 26.1% (30/115) after the first anti-VEGF injection and ranged from 20.0% (7/35) to 36.7% (11/30) after the first 16 injections. After each anti-VEGF injection from the 1st to the 16th, <60% of patients achieved 20/40 or better BCVA and ≤70% of patients achieved CRT ≤250 µm on TD-OCT or ≤300 µm on SD-OCT. The most common treatment-related adverse event was blurry or cloudy vision.Conclusion: In this real-world study, a mean of five to seven anti-VEGF injections was administered yearly, and the response to anti-VEGF therapy was suboptimal in many patients. Anti-VEGF therapy was well tolerated. Keywords: aflibercept, bevacizumab, branch retinal vein occlusion, central retinal vein occlusion, ranibizumab, visual acuity
