ABSTRACT
@#BACKGROUND: There are two general types of age-related macular degeneration: dry and wet. During wet or neovascular age-related macular degeneration new abnormal vessels grow and leak in the macula. As anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) was invented, it revolutionized the treatment of nAMD by inhibiting the progress of this disease. The incidence of AMD increases as life expectancy grows and there is a growing need to study this disease. We aimed to evaluate the outcome of anti-VEGF therapy for the treatment of nAMD and the incidence of ocular serious adverse events (SAE) after injections.. METHODS: In our retrospective, single-center study, medical records of patients receiving a single dose of anti-VEGF treatment (Bevacizumab) for nAMD between 17th of April, 2016 and October, 2017 were evaluated. Outcome measures were the change in the baseline visual acuity (VA) score at post-injective month one, incidence of ocular SAE and patients’ baseline characteristics affecting VA. Patients, whose treatment were started before April 2016 and had anti-VEGF treatment for the diseases other than nAMD, were excluded.. RESULTS: 15 eyes in 15 patients between 52 and 85 years of age received single dose of anti-VEGF (Bevacizumab/Avastin) injection. The mean baseline VA improved from pre-injective average of 0.21 to post-injective 1-month average of 0.37 by Snellen. Furthermore, there was no vision loss or other severe adverse effects, such as endophthalmitis, vitreous hemorrhage, retinal detachment, traumatic cataract after 4 weeks. CONCLUSION: Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy has promising short-term outcomes on treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration.