Clinical efficacy of ranibizumab in the treatment of corneal neovascularization in elderly patients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of ranibizumab in the treatment of corneal neovascularization(CNV)in elderly patients.Methods A total of 40 elderly patients(50 eyes)with conceal neovascularization were enrolled in this study at our hospital.Among them,20 patients(22 eyes)in observation group enrolled from January 2015 to December 2015,received subconjunctival injection of ranibizumab,and 20 patients(28 eyes)in control group enrolled from June 2014 to December 2014,receivedlaser photocoagulation.The visual acuity,the area of corneal neovascularization,intraocular pressure and therapeutic response rate were measured and compared between two groups before and 1 month,6 months and 12 months after treatment.All patients were followed up for 12 months to record the recurrence and complications.Results In the observation group,20 eyes(90.9％),19 eyes(86.3 ％)and 19 eyes(86.3％)got an improved eyesight at 1 month,6 months and 12 months of ranibizumab treatment,respectively,which were significantly higher than those in the control group(16/57.1％,14/50.0％,12/42.9％,x2 =6.910,5.866,8.010;P=0.031,0.020,0.016,respectively).The area of corneal neovascularization was decreased in both groups after treatment in the comparison of pretreatment.What is more importantat 1 month,6 months and 12 months of treatment,the areas of CNV were all significantly smaller in the observation group than in the control group (t =6.109,5.291,8.330;P =0.019,0.033,0.009,respectively).There was no significant difference in intraocular pressure before versus after treatment in both groups(both P＞ 0.05).The therapeutic response rate was 90.9% (20/22)in observation group,and 75.0% (21/28)in control group(x2 =6.109,P =0.006).During the 12-month follow-up after operation,the recurrence rate of CNV was significantly higher in control group(7 eyes,25.0％)than in observation group(2 eyes,9.1%) (x2 =8.668,P =0.003).Conclusions Subconjunctival injection of ranibizumab is effective and safe with a fewer complications in the treatment of corneal neovascularization in elderly patients,which is worthy of generalizing in clinical treatments.