Intravitreal bevacizumab as a treatment for choroidal neovascularisation secondary to myopia: 4-year study results

Abstract

Objectives: To report long-term follow-up results from intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) treatment of choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) secondary to pathologic myopia (PM).

Design: The study was designed as a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients presenting with PM.

Participants: Twenty-one eyes were examined from 20 different patients.

Methods: The study was designed as a retrospective, consecutive, nonrandomised, interventional case series. Twenty-one eyes from 20 patients with CNV secondary to PM who were treated with bevacizumab were followed for a maximum of 52 months. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical coherence tomography, and fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography were performed on each patient at baseline presentation and every 3 months thereafter for the entire follow-up period. The continuation therapy was based on dosing as needed regimen (PRN) for treatment assessment.

Results: Overall, 15 (71.4%) of the 21 eyes studied demonstrated an improvement of ≥ 1 line on the Snellen chart. A total of 3 (14.3%) eyes showed no change with this analysis, and 3 (14.3%) eyes lost 1 line of discrimination. After the 4-year study period, fluorescein angiography suggested absence of angiographic leakage or fibrotic lesions in 15 eyes, and 3 eyes showed partial regression of myopic CNV. The remaining 3 eyes demonstrated total regression of CNV.

Conclusions: Intravitreal bevacizumab appears to be an effective therapy for myopic CNV and its benefit may persist in a long-term follow-up, on the basis of PRN treatment compared to the natural history of the disease.