Visual outcome of photodynamic therapy for typical neovascular age-related macular degeneration and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy over 5 years of follow-up.

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on typical neovascular age-related macular degeneration (tAMD) and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV).

Methods: This was a multicenter prospective study of 139 eyes from 136 patients (tAMD: 74 eyes; PCV: 65 eyes) who underwent PDT as the initial treatment. The change in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), predictive factors for the BCVA at 60 months, frequency of recurrence, and mean recurrence period were analyzed.

Results: The pre-PDT BCVA and greatest linear dimension (GLD) did not differ between the two groups. The mean BCVA (logMAR) was significantly improved at 6 months post-initial PDT (post-PDT) in the PCV group (-0.11, P = 0.0091). However, at 60 months post-PDT, the mean BCVA was significantly worse than baseline in the tAMD (+0.21, P = 0.0035) and PCV (+0.21, P = 0.0076) groups. Pre-PDT BCVA, age, and GLD were the factors significantly associated with the BCVA at 60 months post-PDT. Although the frequency of recurrence did not significantly differ between the two phenotype groups, the mean recurrence period was significantly longer in the PCV group than in the tAMD group (15.7 vs. 8.6 months, P = 0.0020).

Conclusions: PDT may not have benefits for visual acuity in cases of tAMD and PCV over 5 years of follow-up.