Photodynamic Therapy for Choroidal Neovascularization caused by Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the short-term results of photodynamic therapy with verteporfin for the patients with subfoveal CNV caused by age-related macular degeneration. METHODS: We performed photodynamic therapy with verteporfin in 21 patients (21 eyes) who were diagnosed as subfoveal CNV in AMD. The range of age was from 54 to 81, and 67 on average. Male patients were fifteen and female patients were six. The pretreatment visual acuity by ETDRS chart was from 20/200 to 20/32. On FAG, predominantly classic type were sixteen eyes, minimally classic type were four eyes, and no classic type was one eye. We followed up at 3 months intervals after treatment. The follow-up period was ranged from 3 months to 15 months, 6.8 months on average. We performed retreatment with the same method when any leakage was found on FAG performed every 3 months. RESULTS: One month after treatment, mean visual acuity change increased by 0.6 lines. Three months after treatment, mean visual acuity change increased by 0.8 lines. Six months after treatment, mean visual acuity change increased by 1.5 lines. Nine months after treatment, mean visual acuity change increased by 1.1 lines. On FAG, eight eyes showed minimal leakage, twelve eyes showed moderate leakage and only one eye showed progression after 3 months. Out of thirteen eyes which could be followed up more than 6 months, nine eyes showed minimal leakage, three eyes moderate leakage and only one eye progression. Out of nine eyes which could be followed up more than 9 months, five eyes showed minimal leakage, three eyes moderate leakage and only one eye progression. CONCLUSIONS: The above results indicate that the short-term results of photodynamic therapy for subfoveal CNV caused by AMD were encouraging as a good treatment modality to reduce the risk of visual loss. Further study with longer follow-up, a large number of cases and control study will be necessary to decide the effect of photodynamic therapy.